Jeremy Clarkson has clashed with his local council several times (Picture: PA)
Jeremy Clarkson has found himself in hot water yet again, this time because he poked fun at a lawyer on Clarkson’s Farm.
The exchange is believed to have happened at a hearing before West Oxfordshire district council’s uplands area planning subcommittee in January.
During the meeting the former Top Gear presenter, 62, spoke about wanting to expand business on his Diddly Squat farm in the Cotswolds.
Arguing that he had plans to ‘diversify’ because of the ‘parlous state’ of finances for farmers, Clarkson lashed out after things didn’t seem to be going his way.
When going through a council officer’s report, written by Barrister Charles Streeten, Clarkson is believed to have made ‘disparaging remarks’ about the written responses.
‘The TV star took a swipe at spelling mistakes in the council officer’s report,’ a report of the hearing in The Guardian said.
Barrister Charles Streeten has published an open letter addressing the comments (Picture: Charles Streeten)
Now the lawyer has said that being mocked on screen made him want to speak out and reveal he was actually dyslexic, and the jibes reminded him of facing hurdles in school.
Publishing an open letter to Clarkson, it began with Streeten addressing the criticism.
‘Learn to spell. Well, I’ve certainly tried. When you muttered those words to me you couldn’t have known how many times I’ve heard them,’ he wrote in the letter, according to The Times.
‘But to a dyslexic, it’s a familiar phrase.’
Parts of the meeting were also aired on Clarkson’s Farm (Picture: Amazon Prime)
He also pointed out there had been 56 letters of objection compared to 13 of support for Clarkson’s proposals.
He added the TV personality had a ‘general disregard’ for planning rules and claimed his conduct was ‘shameful’.
He reportedly added: ‘It indicates a “give me an inch and I’ll take a mile” attitude.’
The eventual ruling went in favour of Streeten and against Clarkson.
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It is believed part of the pair’s exchange was also recently screened in the second season of Clarkson’s Farm.
In the letter Streeten also shared how ‘no matter’ how hard he worked or ‘stowed the list of words beneath my pillow, when the time came to be tested, I simply could not put the letters in order with certainty’.
He then went on to detail the struggles he had faced when also pursuing his law degree, but told Clarkson that ‘dyslexia didn’t forestall my career at the bar’, and had until their exchange seen him targeted in his career in a way that Clarkson had called him out.
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The row between the two follows Clarkson’s controversial column about Meghan Markle, in which he wrote he ‘hated’ her and had dreamed of her being paraded through British towns and publicly shamed.
It sparked thousands of complaints, and ended in him issuing an apology, which included him saying he was ‘mortified’ by his words.
Metro.co.uk has contacted Jeremy Clarkson for comment.
Clarkson’s Farm seasons one and two are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
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‘I’ve certainly tried.’
