Major update on Clarkson’s Farm star Kaleb Cooper’s fight with council to live on his own land
CLARKSON’S Farm star Kaleb Cooper has won permission from the council to live in a caravan on his own land.
Kaleb, who became famous for helping the petrol-head turn his hand to agriculture, had argued that either he or another worker needed to live on site to care for his pigs, chickens and calves.
He is known as Jeremy’s long-suffering farmhand and has a four-acre plot nearby to Diddly Squat.
Kaleb, 26, has a 38 ft caravan, currently used as an office, which already has a bathroom and plant pots outside.
He had applied for retroactive planning permission from West Oxfordshire District Council in summer last year.
Granting the application on February 15, Abby Fettes, Development Manager at West Oxfordshire District Council, said: “The applicant is advised that the recommendation to support this mobile home was on balance.”
She added: “The occupation of the mobile home shall be limited to a person solely or mainly working, or last working, in the locality in pastoral agriculture, or a widow or widower of such a person, and to any resident dependants.”
The application will last for two years while Kaleb establishes his farming business on the land.
Kaleb and his girlfriend Taya share a three-year old son Oscar and a baby daughter Willa Grace who was born in June.
He has recently taken his talk show The World According To Kaleb on a tour of theatres across the country.
Sun columnist Clarkson has been caught up in countless planning wars over his plans to expand his farm shop in recent years.
He was forced to defend his plans after drawn-out rows over a car park and a restaurant – telling the council he did “not want to turn Diddly Squat Farm into Disneyland”.
Clarkson has lodged 11 planning applications with the local council since he bought the plot in 2008.
He has recently applied for a “storage barn” at the Diddly Squat site after an extended row over extending his car park.
The former Top Gear presenter has dropped plans for a restaurant at the farm, writing to the council to say he “no longer wished” to open the dining venue, but defended his plans for the site saying he did “not want to turn Diddly Squat Farm into Disneyland”.
He had briefly been able to keep a restaurant, saying that he had found a “delightful little loophole” that allowed him to open the venue. But planning officers closed it down anyway.
Writing to the council last year, he said: “On the farming front, I had read about something called mob grazing.
“This is a highly ecological way of rejuvenating the soil, using the muck from hens and cows, rather than chemical fertilisers.
“The problem was that if I sold the cows in the conventional way, I’d lose about £200 on each one. So I decided that to make a profit, the beef should be cooked and served in a restaurant, which I’d create by converting our lambing barn.
“Permission for this was refused. And our attempts to get round the problem by using permitted development rights, and opening up in our so-called Lowland Barn were thwarted by the enforcement notice we are appealing.
“As a result of this, I’ve had to sell most of the cows I bought. And now I’m back to using chemicals. I no longer wish to open a restaurant.”
He continued: “We do not wish to expand the on-site businesses any further. We are perfectly happy with what we have.
“A little shop, and the lambing barn, which can be used for lambing in the spring and as a place for people to sit in the summer while they have food and a glass of our own beer from the mobile van.
“Then they go home with a little something they bought in the shop.
“Contrary to some of the claims being made, I do not want to turn Diddly Squat Farm into Disneyland. It is, after all, where I live.
“But we really do need on-site parking. It’s vital. And lavatories.” The Sun contacted a representative for Kaleb for comment.