Jeremy Clarkson submits plans to extend Diddly Squat Farm with a mobile food vending unit and picnic tables – as Amazon bosses ‘plan to renew show for a fourth season’

Jeremy Clarkson has submitted plans to extend his Diddly Squat Farm with a food kiosk and picnic tables – amid reports Amazon bosses are planning to renew his fly-on-the-wall series for a fourth season.

The former Top Gear host has been at loggerhead with council planners ever since his farm shop and café opened last summer, as officials claimed was in breach of the site’s location in a Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

But the facilities, along with a new parking area, were finally approved on appeal by West Oxfordshire district council in a rare planning victory for the star.

Now, he is seeking to discharge a planning condition which requires him to submit a site development plan – instead offering planners details about how the site will work.

These include its lambing shed – used to serve food and drink – as well as the number of mobile food vending units or kiosks and ‘no more than’ 40 picnic tables.

The former Top Gear host has since apologised for comments made in the Sun newspaper

Petrolheads have been warned by a council not to cause traffic chaos by parking near Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm (pictured) 

Queues formed outside Jeremy Clarkson’s popular Diddy Farm Squat Shop. The newly laid car park becoming jammed full – with two hour waits to get a space

Sharing a picture of damaged verges next to the site, Oxfordshire County Council posted: ‘If you’re visiting Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm Shop in Chadlington from tomorrow, please park safely and considerately’

The applicant’s agent confirmed the scheme includes one mobile food vending unit – sited next to the lambing shed.

They added: ‘The lambing shed itself will be used to serve food and drinks, store products to be sold, sell products from temporary stalls, consume food and drink purchased on site and accommodate picnic tables for seating for customers, and for agriculture.

‘The above uses will be accommodated within the lambing shed variously and from time to time but not necessarily continuously.’

The application confirmed the total number of picnic tables on site ‘will not exceed 40’.

The application will be determined by West Oxfordshire District Council at a later date.

Yesterday, news broke that Clarkson‘s hit Amazon series Clarkson’s Farm is set to be renewed for a fourth season by the streaming giant despite suggestions it would be axed following the fall out from the ex-Top gear presenter’s comments on Meghan Markle last year, it was reported today. 

Clarkson’s show has been a ratings phenomenon for Amazon and something of a business boom for the Grand Tour star.

Since launching in 2021, the show – which also brought straight-talking Cotswold farmer Kaleb Cooper to prominence –  has documented Clarkson’s attempts to transform his huge 1,000-acre Diddly Squat Farm into a working business complete with a farm shop and organic beer brand.

But the show’s future has been brought into doubt after Clarkson sparked a backlash with an incendiary column about the Duchess of Sussex in which he said he ‘hated’ the royal.

Clarkson apologised for the article, calling his language ‘disgraceful’. The Sun newspaper also apologised for publishing the column and removed it online. Ipso, the press watchdog, upheld a complaint that the column was sexist towards the duchess, describing some of Clarkson’s comments about her as ‘pejorative and prejudicial’.

Clarkson’s Farm is reportedly returning for a fourth series which will film in 2024

It follows controversial comments Jeremy Clarkson made about Meghan Markle (right) which Prince Harry (left)  labelled ‘horrific and cruel’

In a lengthy statement on his verified Instagram account, The Grand Tour presenter said he emailed the couple on Christmas Day to say his language in the column had been ‘disgraceful’ and he was ‘profoundly sorry’

It was thought that Clarkson’s Farm would end with Season 3, expected in 2024, with The Grand Tour also ending after four more special episodes, the last of which is expected to be in late 2024. 

However, Deadline reports that the streamer is now ‘preparing to renew the show’, and although ‘a deal is not finalised’ the discussions around a comeback ‘have been positive’. Amazon declined to comment when approached by MailOnline about the report.

Clarkson said he emailed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on Christmas Day to apologise over his column in The Sun newspaper in which he said he ‘hated’ Meghan.

In a lengthy statement on his verified Instagram account, The Grand Tour presenter earlier said he emailed the couple on Christmas Day to say his language in the column had been ‘disgraceful’ and he was ‘profoundly sorry’.

He said: ‘One of the strange things I’ve noticed in recent times is that whenever an MP or a well-known person is asked to apologise for something, no matter how heartfelt or profound that apology may be, it’s never enough for the people who called for it in the first place.

‘So I’m going to try and buck the trend this morning with an apology for the things I said in a Sun column recently about Meghan Markle. I really am sorry. All the way from the balls of my feet to the follicles on my head. This is me putting my hands up. It’s a mea culpa with bells on.

‘Usually, I read what I’ve written to someone else before filing, but I was home alone on that fateful day, and in a hurry. So when I’d finished, I just pressed send. And then, when the column appeared the next day, the landmine exploded.’

Clarkson described the moment he picked up a copy of The Sun to ‘see what all the fuss was about.’

Jeremy Clarkson says he emailed Duke and Duchess of Sussex on Christmas Day apologising

Since launching in 2021, the show has documented the pair’s attempts to work Clarkson’s huge 1,000-acre Cotswalds farm

The show has helped the presenter turn the Diddly Squat Farm shop in Chipping Norton into a working business

He continued: ‘We’ve all been there, I guess. In that precise moment when we suddenly realise we’ve completely messed up. You are sweaty and cold at the same time. And your head pounds. And you feel sick. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Had I really said that? It was horrible.

‘I knew what had happened straight away. I’d been thinking of a scene in Games of Thrones, but I’d forgotten to mention this. So it looked like I was actually calling for revolting violence to rain down on Meghan’s head.

‘I was very angry with myself because in all those controversial days on Top Gear, when I was accused of all sorts of things, it was very rarely sexism. I was mortified and so was everyone else. My phone went mad. Very close friends were furious. Even my own daughter took to Instagram to denounce me.’

Clarkson’s statement went on to say ITV and Amazon, which airs Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and The Grand Tour respectively, were ‘incandescent’.

He said: ‘The Sun quickly apologised and I tried to explain myself. But still, there were calls for me to be sacked and charged with a hate crime.

‘More than 60 MPs demanded action to be taken. ITV, who make Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, and Amazon, who make the farm show and the Grand Tour, were incandescent.

‘I therefore wrote to everyone who works with me saying how sorry I was and then on Christmas morning, I emailed Harry and Meghan in California to apologise to them too.

‘I said I was baffled by what they had been saying on TV but that the language I’d used in my column was disgraceful and that I was profoundly sorry.’

Clarkson said he will ‘try’ to be ‘interesting and vigilant’ at the same time in future columns.