West Oxfordshire District Council has labelled Jeremy Clarkson’s Amazon Prime movie ‘misleading’.
This followed the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? presenter storming out of a council meeting after arguing with officials over his intentions to develop a restaurant on his Diddly Squat farm.
West Oxfordshire District Council was engaged in the planning disputes and issued a statement shortly after Clarkson’s Farm season two episodes aired saying that the broadcaster was treated “no differently” than anybody else.
And they’ve now slammed the way the meeting was depicted on the show, in which multiple councillors voted against the planning permit before Clarkson drove away, furiously swearing.
In a statement, the council said: ‘The planning meeting shown in Clarkson’s Farm ran for well over an hour but was covered in a matter of minutes in the show.
‘This meant that a lot of discussion from the meeting was missed, including a lot of very relevant legal planning advice and discussion that informed the decision taken by councillors.
‘The “dark skies” argument that featured in the programme was a very small part of the overall discussion and was not the reason for refusal of planning permission.’
The council spokesperson continued to Oxford Mail: ‘Usually for applications like this, a business would speak to us so we can support it ensuring an application is compliant with planning policy.
‘We would have been happy to do that in this case, however, Diddly Squat Farm did not engage with us nor follow advice from our planners when pulling together the application.
‘Throughout series two of Clarkson’s Farm a lot of information was not included, or appears to have been misleading for viewers, leading to the narrative promoted by the series that the council has a vendetta against Mr Clarkson.’
The statement went on to provide examples of what was ‘omitted’ in the show, saying: ‘A good example of this was the “refusal” of the farm track where the show omitted the fact that Diddly Squat Farm had applied retrospectively for work that can only be applied for in advance meaning the council had no choice under law but to refuse it.’
In response, a spokesperson for Clarkson’s farm told the publication: ‘Naturally not every element of filming makes the final edit of the programmes, however the episode covered both sides of the debate and the outcome of the meeting.’
Clarkson’s second Amazon series depicts another year on the farm with new animals and harvests, as well as Clarkson’s contacts with the local authorities.
Clarkson, who bought the farm in 2008 and took over management in 2019, drew a negative response from several residents when he extended the company to include a farm store and restaurant.
He earlier stated that there were ‘plenty’ of other residents who seemed more accepting, if not enthusiastic, to his efforts.
Clarkson challenged the restaurant’s closure order last year after West Oxfordshire District Council rejected two planning applications.
In a letter to the council in January, he stated that he ‘no longer longed’ for a restaurant and instead wanted to create on-site parking.
Clarkson’s Farm seasons one and two are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
Source My Celebrity Life.