Jeremy Clarkson's planning application to build a bigger car park at Diddly Squat Farm Shop is splitting opinion - although the broadcaster seems confident that it will be approved.

Responding to an article on a national newspaper website which suggested he was locked in a row with locals over the plans, Mr Clarkson tweeted a screenshot of a list of support comments from the West Oxfordshire District Council planning portal.

The proposals would see the number of spaces jump from 10 to 70 with four disabled spaces and cycle parking all cordoned off with straw bales.

New entry and exit points will be built off Chipping Norton Road as well as a storage compound.

There are around 30 objection comments with a similar number in support on the planning portal. 

Local residents have complained of 'traffic chaos' since Mr Clarkson's hit TV show Clarkson's Farm first aired last June.

Oxford Mail:

Police have had to attend and Chadlington Parish Council said it had recorded an estimated 400 vehicles parking on fields around the site on one busy day. 

Several fans have referred to the car park as "Diddly Squelch" because of the mud.

Several objection comments said the former RAF Chipping Norton airfield site should be used as a car park instead.

One Chadlington local said "the very real perils are self evident and the local length of the A361 and the corner in question are recorded black spots."

However, those in favour said parking facilities for the farm shop are much needed and will ease pressure on surrounding roads while boosting the local economy.

One seemed resigned to the ongoing development of the site and said that people may have "reluctantly concluded that the best option is to support this application given everyone’s concerns for averting a bad accident". 

Chadlington Parish Council objected, saying the application "would remove some, but not all, vehicles from the road given the visitor numbers experienced, and would not reduce the current number of vehicle movements in the area which is a safety concern".

 

Oxford Mail:

Thames Valley Police's crime prevention design advisor Kevin Cox did not object but commented that the application does not "adequately consider the potential for crime and disorder".

Mr Cox said the applicant must provide details of what would be done to control parking at busy times to stop "safety issues and disruption and a subsequent demand on police resourcing as seen previously".