Jeremy Clarkson spent ‘thousands’ prepping cafe before being blindsided by council refusal

express.co.uk:

Jeremy Clarkson, 61, has admitted he expected to receive planning permission for his farm restaurant recently. He went into detail about the “horrific” meeting as he shared how he was left blindsided by the council’s decision.Jeremy had been planning a conversion of his lambing barn at his Oxfordshire farm into a cafe and restaurant.The plans went before the local council last week as the Top Gear star said he wanted to diversify his business.However, the decision was voted down on January 11 as the council ruled it would not be fitting with the Area of Outstanding Beauty.Jeremy has now opened up about what happened in the meeting as he branded those he lost the bid to as “nimbys”.The Clarkson’s Farm presenter admitted in his latest column for The Sunday Times that he’d already begun preparations for the restaurant.Jeremy had spent “thousands on advisers and landscape architects” for the plan.He’d also run it through “the parish council, Thames Valley Police, Oxfordshire county council's transport division, West Oxfordshire district council's drainage division, their environmental health people and, especially, their very helpful business development department.”Jeremy went on to admit in the piece published today that he thought it would be a “shoo-in” that it would pass.The presenter penned: “All of this meant the planning permission would be a shoo-in, so I bought the cows that would produce the beef we'd need, and built them a barn.“I also built hen houses that would produce the eggs and my son gave up his job in London to come and make sauces from the chillies I was growing.”However, the presenter explained he was denied planning in the “horrific” meeting with the council.Jeremy has vowed to attempt to overturn the.