SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: Farm shop spat puts Jeremy Clarkson into a spin

He is worth £50 million and has a multitude of adoring fans all over the globe. 

But the irrepressible Jeremy Clarkson doesn’t get everything his own way — even at Diddly Squat, his 1,000-acre Cotswolds farm.

Earlier this year, Clarkson opened a farm shop, Squat Shop, only for its makeshift car park to turn into a quagmire as locals roared in to snap up water labelled ‘It’s got no s**t in it’, and potatoes which, Clarkson promised, were cheaper than Aldi’s.

Now he’s snarled up in a spat with Chadlington Parish Council, which accuses him of flouting planning regulations and coronavirus guidelines.

‘Conditions of the original planning application have not been adhered to,’ allege the councillors in a letter to the planning authorities.

‘It clearly states that goods retailed from the farm shop shall be solely limited to goods and produce grown, reared and produced on the holding or from local producers based solely within West Oxfordshire District Council boundaries, and this has not been the case. 

‘Despite assurances to the local shops in the village that there would be no direct competition, this is not happening.’

Nor is the council appreciative of a ‘pop-up’ cafe which briefly appeared at Diddly Squat, as the straw bales used for seating were covered with ‘fabric throws’, which were ‘against Covid-19 regulations’.

It concludes by making allegations concerning the filming of Clarkson’s forthcoming Amazon Prime Series, I Bought The Farm.

Large numbers of cars have been parked haphazardly along that piece of road when filming takes place, causing problems and an accident waiting to happen,’ claim the Chadlington councillors.

Clarkson, 60, gives a characteristically full-throttle response. 

‘No cars are ever parked on the road as there is a large car park,’ he tells me, before explaining that ‘pretty much all’ the food and drink on sale comes ‘either from my farm or from within a few miles of the shop’. 

But most important of all, he adds, is that ‘in a time of great economic uncertainty, that little shop now employs five people and buys from local producers who otherwise would be out of a job’.

Last month, motormouth Clarkson was forced to reapply for planning permission because his farm shop was built with the wrong type of roof.

Anthea’s been on an itsy-bitsy Odyssey… 

She has never been a shrinking violet. So it is no surprise Anthea Turner wanted to show the world that, at the age of 60, she still looks good in an itsy-bitsy bikini.

The former Blue Peter and GMTV presenter, who admits she has had cosmetic surgery, posed in the surf in the yellow £159 Melissa Odabash halterneck two-piece and then posted the image on Instagram.

Miss Turner, whose TV appearances over the past 20 years have mostly been in adverts and reality shows, told fans she had just got back from her ‘beautiful Greek Odyssey to Santorini, Naxos and Crete’.

She had been set to marry for a third time this month, until the pandemic disrupted her plans for a wedding in Italy. She and boyfriend Mark Armstrong have put the celebrations on hold until next year.

Miss Turner has said the wedding ‘will be small and cute, just with our close friends and family’ — unlike her marriage to second husband Grant Bovey in 2000, when the couple sold the rights to a magazine and were pictured munching on a newly launched chocolate bar.

You wear it well: Rod’s boy gets into top gear

Sir Rod Stewart is famous for his flamboyant wardrobe, and it seems 26-year-old son Liam has inherited his love of glad rags.

The ice hockey player, whose mother is Rod’s former wife, model Rachel Hunter, has just launched his debut streetwear label, DiscoCrew, with his Kiwi bodybuilder girlfriend Bella Spooner, 24. 

‘I’ve been wanting to do a fun merchandise line for a while,’ explains Liam, who plays for Milton Keynes Lightning in Buckinghamshire. 

‘I started gaming and streaming during lockdown and built a little online community of people known as the DiscoCrew.’

The all-black range includes £45 hoodies, £25 T‑shirts, beanies for £15 and £12.50 face masks.

Oscar winner Gary Oldman is such a fan of Paul Smith that he even wears the label to bed. But the fashion designer refuses to give him a penny off.

‘From the pyjamas to the socks and suits, he wears it all,’ says Sir Paul, the son of a salesman. ‘His sons wear Paul Smith; his wife wears Paul Smith.

‘We don’t give Gary a discount. We don’t really do discounts. We don’t give away clothes, either. We’re not mean — but once you start, you can’t stop.’

Boris Johnson’s new senior trade adviser Tony Abbott, the former Australian PM, may be a divisive figure but he has our best interests at heart.

Talking about his original ambition in life, he told author Dominic Shelmerdine: ‘Strange as it may sound, my “original ambition” was simply to do good. 

‘This may have much to do with my father, who always told me, as a very young boy, that it was better to be a good man rather than a successful one.

‘Then the Jesuits drummed into me being a ‘man for others’.’

Prince Andrew continues to be airbrushed out of the Royal family. 

Yesterday, the Royal Collection Trust announced that Princess Beatrice’s wedding dress, designed by Sir Norman Hartnell, would go on display at Windsor Castle later this month. 

However, the lengthy press release contained not a single mention of the Duke of York or his ex-wife Fergie. 

In July, Andrew was left out of official pictures released of his daughter’s surprise wedding — even though he walked her down the aisle. 

Mel to man the rolling phones to beat Trump  

Sir Mick Jagger’s girlfriend, Mel Hamrick, is pirouetting from ballet to ballot boxes.

Just months after the Rolling Stones threatened to sue U.S. President Donald Trump for using their songs at his re-election rallies, the American ballerina, 33, reveals she’s campaigning for Trump’s Democratic rival, Joe Biden. 

She has signed up for online classes to learn how to sway voters over the phone.

‘I’m volunteering to make calls,’ she explains from Italy, where she is on holiday with Mick, 77, and their three-year-old son, Deveraux. 

‘I might be overseas, but I’m still going to do everything I can to make a difference.’