Jeremy Clarkson said it was a “bad day for farming” after councillors refused him permission to convert a lambing shed on his Cotswold farm into a 50-seat restaurant with a 70-space car park.

The uplands planning sub-committee of West Oxfordshire district council rejected his application by 8 votes to 2 at meeting he attended with his land agent Charlie Ireland, who also appears in hit TV show Clarkson's Farm.

Here's what the TV presenter-turned-farmer said.

In a brief interview before the meeting he said he hoped for a positive result and said plans to build a permanent car park for 70 cars should appease locals' fears about traffic.

He told ITV Meridian: "If we're not allowed to build a car park, then people will have to park on the road and if anybody objects, then they shouldn't have objected to the planning permission. That's what we're asking for - a small car park."

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Clarkson said: "Much has been made of the fact that the area is an area of nature beauty, which it is.

"The reason it is, is because farmers maintain it, farmers look after the woodland, the hedges and streams and fields. They keep it beautiful.

"Farmers are not going to be able to do that for much longer because of the state of finances."

"We have been told as farmers to diversify and that is exactly what this proposal is. It's diversification of a farming business."

He told the committee he was building a cooperative of local farmers who would supply the restaurant but did not have a business case to show them, and if planning permission had been granted he would not have had to keep to that plan.

As he left the meeting in Witney, he told the BBC the plans would enhance farming and tourism in the area and the refusal meant a “very bad day for farming”.

When asked how frustrated he was, he added: “Very, and so will all the local farmers [be].”

The Times has reported he vowed to appeal against the decision and “go to the secretary of state”.

“I am very frustrated and so will a lot of farmers be,” he said. “It’s a bad day for farming but we shall appeal and win in the end. But it’s frustrating.”

Before climbing into his Range Rover he described Phil Shaw, an official who recommended that councillors refuse the application, as looking like the late comedian Eric Morecambe.

“He wasn’t as funny as Eric Morecambe, I can tell you that,” he said.