Jeremy Clarkson asked to lay on shuttle buses for busy Clarkson’s …
Jeremy Clarkson could solve the traffic problems around Diddly Squat Farm by persuading his fans to leave their cars at home and lay on a shuttle bus from á disused airfield say local councillors. According to them Diddly Squat is so popular that it should be treated like a tourist attraction rather than a farm shop.
And they have made a number of suggestions to resolve the issues of parking which include persuading fans to catch the bus and creating a car park with shuttle buses at disused airfield. They don’t say which airfield but Clarkson does have part of a former RAF satellite station on his Cotswolds farm.
Parish councillors made the suggestion after Clarkson asked for permission to create a temporary car park until January 2025. The television presenter says he is expecting “significant” visitor numbers over the next year or two, particularly when season three of his Amazon series Clarkson’s Farm is released.
Filming is already well underway for series three and he fears that if highways ban parking on the road running past the farm at Chadlington as proposed, it will create a safety hazard. Turning a field next to the Diddly Squat farm into temporary parking for 70 vehicles could be a sticking plaster until a permanent solution can be found, he he says.
He is currently awaiting the outcome of his appeal against refusal of planning permission for a permanent overflow car park but fears this will come to late to deal with the traffic this summer.
But as villagers face the influx of visitors for the third Bank Holiday weekend in a row, members of Chadlington Parish Council have told planners at West Oxfordshire District Council “there is concern in the village that a temporary car park is unlikely to stay temporary” .
They say Clarkson’s proposal would not be enough to cope with the sheer number of fans who flock to the shop during busy periods and and an action plan is needed to manage or restrict the number of visitors over weekends and school holidays. Councillors also want the Grand Tour presenter to encourage visitors to travel by public transport and create a park and ride with a shuttle service at busy times.
Cars parked on the grass verge at Jeremy Clarkson's Diddly Squat Farm near Chadlington in Oxfordshire during the opening weekend of the shop following its winter closure (Image: PA)
They don’t name the airfield they suggest but Clarkson's farmland includes RAF Brize Norton, a second world war satellite station that was returned to agricultural use when it was sold in 1953. Another part of the disused airfield is used for Airsoft, a survival game popular in Japan.
“The Council feels that if the application is granted it will not be sufficient to cope with the large numbers of cars at popular times and therefore needs to be seen as part of developing a comprehensive visitor management plan as befitting what has clearly become a major tourist attraction,” says the letter from Chadlington Parish Council which suggests the shuttle buses.
“To this end, and whether or not this application is granted, the Council is of the view that the owner should be encouraged to develop a comprehensive visitor management plan." Villagers are divided with many objecting to the plans and others supporting them.
Queues at Diddly Squat Farm Shop (Image: Chantelle Luckes)
But in a a covering letter Clarkson’s agents says there is concern about Oxfordshire County Council’s decision to ban parking on the the A361 and Chipping Norton Road at Chadlington which came around the same time as the release of the second series of the Amazon TV show which caused visitor numbers to shoot up.
His agent says they anticipate “ significant” numbers of visitors over the school holidays in 2023 and into 2024 if the third series, which is currently being filmed is released. Bringing in the parking restrictions without an alternative during the release of the third series would pose a safety risk because it would lead to pedestrians walking to the site and drivers performing complex manoeuvres to turn on the road they say.
"The temporary car park is proposed in order to help solve rather than divert or deflect a problem or create a new problem," said the agent.
It's not known when series three of Clarkson's Farm will be released but series two was released in February 2023. However series three could be quicker because it did not have the same gap in filming as between one and two.