THE parish council consulted over alterations to Jeremy Clarkson’s farm shop has expressed concern over development of the site on the back of queues of customers turning up.

Diddly Squat Farm Shop in Chadlington, Chipping Norton, has applied to make external alterations to an existing building to provide a new rear access door, replace existing fabric roller shutters and gates with new solid roller shutter doors and alterations to timber cladding to close gaps.

The site shot to fame in Clarkson's Farm, the hit Amazon TV series. 

The application will be decided by West Oxfordshire District Council with no date set for it to be heard but Chadlington Parish Council has been asked for its views.

The minutes of a meeting last month read: “Chadlington Parish Council has no objections to the proposals detailed in this planning application, however, you will be aware that there was a building control application for the conversion of the lambing shed to form a café on November 2, 2020.

“In addition to this a licensing application was also made in February 2021.”

It notes that application involves the opening of a café/function area adjacent to the shop and areas to sell alcohol and provide entertainment for a maximum of 150 people.

“Whilst the current planning application makes no reference to any of the above as being the reason for these alterations, the parish council is concerned that, in the event of this application being approved, this should not confirm a change of use status for this agricultural building.

“The parish council remains concerned regarding the effect of the incremental development at this location, both upon the local community, its existing shops and an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB).

“The number of cars currently visiting this site is already substantial, often filling the existing available parking space and overflowing onto the Chipping Norton Road, which is hardly desirable in an AONB and creates a significant risk that accidents will occur.”

There was no let up over the weekend with queues of people outside the shop reported by the national press.

The former Top Gear star has apologised to locals in the past about queues of traffic that had lined up to visit, although it was reported by the Daily Mail that there appeared to be “ample parking space for motorists coming up to the shop” at the weekend.