Jeremy Clarkson scores win over pub car park as he fights to maintain profits
Jeremy Clarkson has secured a planning permission win for his Farmer’s Dog car park following a desperate fight to save profits.
The Clarkson’s Farm star, 65, opened his Oxfordshire pub and restaurant in 2024, instantly attracting floods of visitors.
Its popularity has remained steady since, but Clarkson has also encountered obstacles along the way, which he’s made no secret of.
As customers have continued flocking to the boozer, he’s had no option but to rent out a neighbouring farmer’s field, which has served as an overflow car park for the hundreds of vehicles pulling up each day.
Clarkson then applied to West Oxfordshire District Council for retrospective planning permission, seeking for the overflow car park – which can hold 360 cars – to remain for at least a few years.
Being granted planning permission would prevent gridlock on the surrounding country lanes, it was argued, and the council seemingly agreed.
Clarkson has now won his battle, The Sun reports, and he can freely use the space as an overflow car park until December 31, 2029.
‘Having previously engaged in discussions about the car park and the barrow, we are pleased to see that an application has now been submitted,’ said Historic England.
Initially, Clarkson faced resistance from conservationists, who expressed concerns that repurposing the field as a car park could impact a 1,400-year-old burial ground called the Asthall Barrow nearby.
Clarkson installed one-inch-thick aluminium sheets over a 10,000-square-foot area in response, creating a hard surface on the ground to protect it.
This, in itself, brought unforeseen troubles, though, with a woman taking legal action after slipping and falling on the ‘razor sharp’ surface, cutting into her hand, which underwent reconstruction after metal fragments had to be removed.
Despite writing to Clarkson’s pub to highlight the health and safety risks of the car park and filling in his accident book, Elizabeth, from Scunthorpe, did not receive a reply.
Consequently, the temporary metal sheets have remained on the car park’s surface, but, despite planning permission being granted, work cannot begin on the ground until a ‘detailed’ water drainage scheme has been submitted and approved over the next few months.
Still, Historic England adds: ‘This is a positive step in finalising discussions around parking for the pub.’
Clarkson’s own planning team said: ‘The Farmer’s Dog started trading just over a year ago and has proven to be very popular.
‘There is parking on site, but in order to deal with the level of demand, alternative arrangements were made to ensure the safe movement of vehicles and people to and from the site.’
Previously called The Windmill, the pub was bought by Clarkson for £1million in 2023, and he soon got to work on its renovations and expansion.
He proudly sells and serves products from his Diddly Squat farm – which also features in his Amazon Prime series – and has been making headlines for an array of reasons… usually controversial ones, such as £7 pints, punters’ disgusting toilet habits, and his views on banning those with food intolerances completely.
Upon its opening, Clarkson did actually ban his former Grand Tour colleague James May from the pub. While that’s likely a joke between the friends of 20 years, Clarkson definitely meant it when he prohibited the prime minister from entering the establishment.
Sir Keir Starmer sits atop the banned list, in fact, with the ex-Top Gear host long having been vocal about his disdain for the Labour leader.
‘He’s banned. He’s the first person on the board in the hall to be banned,’ Clarkson once said in an interview, adding: ‘He hasn’t done much to endear himself to me yet.’
In contrast, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has been invited with open arms – while all Labour MPs except Markus Campbell-Savours are not allowed in for a pint.
Clarkson isn’t backwards in coming forward when it comes to the hospitality industry and his battle to maintain profits.
Writing for The Times in December 2024, he said he has experienced ‘extraordinary’ amounts of theft when people ‘come in for a pint [and think they are] entitled to go home with the glass in which it was served’, leading to financial losses, which sit alongside the expensive costs of outdoor heating, fuel, and traffic marshals.
‘The customers are coming. There’s no problem there. But turning their visits into a profit is nigh-on impossible.’
Clarkson is also fearful that pubs as a whole are at risk, with latest stats suggesting one closes every day.
The broadcaster believes the fact that Gen Z aren’t going out drinking as much contributes to the losses, saying previously that ‘the fact is that three breweries are closing every week, along with eight pubs, and all those 28-year-olds who believe they survive on water alone aren’t exactly helping.’
He’s admitted to going home at the end of the day ‘absolutely knackered’, telling BBC that he’ll spend all day ‘dealing with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of problems’.
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