UPDATE: |Jeremy Clarkson faces planning obstacles over development plans for pub car park News

It comes as the TV presenter wants to improve the parking facilities at his pub

Jeremy Clarkson is facing a showdown with council planners over plans to improve parking facilities at his pub.

The television presenter, 64, says he wants to improve parking facilities at his pub, The Farmer’s Dog, to handle the huge increase of visitors to the site since he took over in 2024.

He submitted a planning application for the ‘retention’ of works to ‘formalise’ staff car park and provide extra customer parking, which is currently under consideration by West Oxfordshire District Council.

But a number of potential issues have been raised by consultees that could provide Clarkson with further headaches. Oxfordshire County Council said although it raised no objection, it warned if the district council deemed the car parking “not to be an established lawful use” an additional planning application would be required and several hurdles would need to be overcome.

The county council wrote: “Taking account of the site’s potential levels of traffic generation and higher levels of parking demand, it is requested that a Traffic Management Method Statement (TMMS) be suitably conditioned if consent were to be granted.

“This would include details of the site’s vehicle access, circulation and parking strategy and the measures that would be in place to ensure safe and efficient operation as well as the retention / use of appropriate signage to be agreed with OCC.”

The council said the access gate should “open inwards within the property as opposed to outwards to reduce any potential conflict within the public highway.”

On top of that, the issue of flooding was also raised by the county council with a spokesperson adding: “Should there be an increase of impermeable area a drainage strategy and flood risk assessment needs to provided.”

Clarkson’s planning agent said general permitted development order legislation allows the provision of up to 50 square metres of new hard surface within the site. The agent said the actual area of hard surface provided in the western staff car park is 115 square metres and in the eastern customer car park is 290 square metres.

They said stabilising matting has been provided to the grassed areas in the eastern car park which is considered insignificant. Permission to park at the site, which has 170 spaces, exists already. The proposal also includes new tree planting and hedgerow gapping around both car parks.

Clarkson’s planning agent wrote in the application: “This application seeks to retain two areas of surfacing that have been provided within the site.

“Both areas are within the area within which the existing planning permission extends and the act of parking cars itself is not one which requires permission.”

The agent added: “The application does not seek permission to park vehicles in these locations on the site – as permission already exists for the activity.

“The permission seeks the retention of the areas of hard surfacing that have been provided, in excess of that allowed by the GPDO. (General Permitted Development Order)

“The western surfacing is within an area that is well screened from surrounding views by existing vegetation and it thus is not largely visible from outside the site.

“In a similar vein, due to the fact it is at ground level, the eastern parking surface is only visible from outside the site from the highway immediately to the east.

“The proposals include the provision of new planting to ensure the natural and scenic beauty of the area is protected, This includes tree planting around the western parking area to bolster the existing trees in this location and hedgerow gapping up and tree planting to the east.

“Maximising the availability of parking within the site is a priority for the operators as this assists in preventing overspill parking outside the site which if unregulated has the potential to impact detrimentally on the scenic beauty of the area.”

The agent urged planners to ‘approve the application without delay to allow the much needed facilities to be provided as soon as possible.”

A decision on the application will be made a later date.