The next day, at the farm shop, Lisa and Clarkson discuss the fallout from the situation; Clarkson opines that thanks to this situation it would be "30 years" before the farm turns a profit. Another problem starts to arise: Clarkson's request to make a parking area for the restaurant was tied into the application, and due to the refusal of the application, a parking area could not be made even for visitors to the farm shop, with the council claiming this was an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Clarkson begins to question their logic as to why they would do that and the consequences for not allowing a carpark to be built.
Returning to the office, Clarkson is heartened to find out that councilors from other town councils agreed with him, believing that the decision to reject the application was "idiotic" and suggest Clarkson take them to court. He also receives a message of encouragement from Roger Daltrey and reads it out. Clarkson breaks the news to the farming cooperative, who share his disappointment. He then returns to the farm office, where he reads a letter from the council's environmental and regulatory services informing him of a sample test done on a batch of his potato chips; as he continues reading, he finds out that his potato chips contain a potential carcinogen, thanks to his use of "a certain type of potato in a certain type of oil". As he continues pondering, he wonders how many Melody potatoes he still had in cold storage and groans in frustration.
Clarkson mentions that the only good thing to come out of all of this was the inability for them to sell the potato chips anyway, as the council had forcibly closed the shop due to their use of a tin roof as opposed to a slate one. As Alan and his team do roofing works, Charlie begins a new planning application, pertaining to a carpark for the farm, hoping that with the roofing works done the council would allow the farm to have its carpark. Clarkson goes back to the farm to look for work to do; with the chickens essentially in quarantine due to bird flu, he decides to pierce the ears of the calves with tags and contacts Kaleb for help.
With Clarkson handing Kaleb the tags and Kaleb doing the actual piercing work, they get the job done quite quickly. Clarkson even tries his hand at piercing the ears of one calf on Kaleb's insistence, and is overjoyed at his success. After tagging each of the cows, Kaleb, Charlie and Clarkson work to register the cows with the local governing bodies; this is easier said than done due to constant confusion and miscommunication. They then get to the task of actually registering the calves with the governing body, which annoys Clarkson to no end due to the automated voice system.
The next day, Clarkson meets with Robin Dale of the British Hedgelaying Society to discuss details of an upcoming event, as Diddly Squat farm was to act as the site of a hedgelaying competition. Clarkson agrees on the account that he was getting a free fence, but is informed by Robin to provide lunch for the participants and other guests and the prize fund. Clarkson and Robin then have a drink out of the back of his Range Rover. Having finished talking to Robin, Clarkson checks on Kaleb, who has bought a new tractor for his farm, a New Holland T7.210; Kaleb had also customized it by painting its rims black and putting a "go faster" stripe on the hood.
The first job of the day was to plant the spring barley; as they fix up the crop drill, they encounter a shrew. Kaleb suggests shooting it, but Clarkson spurns the idea. After getting the shrew out of the drill, it crawls underneath the tire of Clarkson's tractor; with no time to waste, Clarkson starts his tractor, trying not to kill the shrew by rolling back. Clarkson lifts the drill, but due to the weight of the drill rolls back, potentially killing the shrew, much to his dismay; Clarkson drives away to find that the shrew lived, much to Clarkson and Kaleb's delight, and proceed to start planting the crops.
Clarkson uses a fertilizer spreader to spread chicken manure around the fields, annoying Kaleb as it dirties his new tractor. While this goes on, Charlie decides to take the restaurant appeal to the Secretary of State, and gathers barristers, lawyers and specialist advisors to aid in this endeavor; at the same time, Charlie has also managed to register the calves with the relevant governing bodies. Dilwyn later arrives at the farm to de-horn two of the calves, done for safety reasons. With both calves now sedated, Dilwyn uses a blowtorch to burn the horns and the tissues where the horn grows; Kaleb assists Dilwyn by giving the calves an antibiotic spray, with Dilwyn later giving them a painkiller injection.
The weekend arrives, and it is the day of the hedgelaying competition at the farm. After the host of the competition gives an opening address, the competition begins, with each of the competitors given five hours to complete their hedge fences. Gerald and his wife drop by to observe the competition; Clarkson and Kaleb then attempt to make a hedge fence under the supervision of one of the judges. Gerald observes Clarkson's "handiwork" and proceeds to mock him for it; giving up on this project, Clarkson and Kaleb decide to observe the competitors. Time is now up, so the competitors have lunch in a marquee set up by Clarkson, while the judges deliberate on the results. At the prize-giving ceremony, Clarkson and Kaleb are given the task of announcing the Supreme Champion of the event, but are interrupted by one of the judges who announces the name of the champion before they can. Clarkson gives a closing speech and the day ends.
On Monday, Clarkson visits the farm shop to inspect Alan's handiwork, now with the slate roof installed; he also installs fire suppression systems to prepare for a later inspection involving the fire officer. With the fire officer having made his rounds, he notes that the shop has adequate fire protection measures but a little more could be done to improve it. With the slate roof installed and adequate fire protection measures, Clarkson now hopes that planning permission for the carpark would be granted.
A few days later, Clarkson and Lisa sit down with Charlie, who has the results of the application. Lisa and Clarkson read the application, only to find that the council have refused it once more. Charlie notes that this decision was done without any input from any committees and that all applications have to be done in "a positive and creative manner". Exasperated, Clarkson decides to take the nuclear option: lodging an appeal to the Secretary of State, in a last ditch attempt to get his restaurant approved for development.
A few days later, Charlie assembles a team of barristers and lawyers to assist with this, and they all visit the farm, with the legal team giving advice to Clarkson on how to go about this process. After surveying the site, the legal team lays out the framework as to how this appeal would go down. Clarkson questions the legal team as to how much this would cost; adding up all the costs, the price for an appeal is an eye-watering £500,000. Despite the Diddly Squad farm clearly having a legitimate case for appealing, Clarkson and Charlie decide to not go through with the appeal, knowing that with these sorts of costs the farm can never be profitable. This essentially kills the notion of the restaurant, with Charlie defeatedly acknowledging that he does not know what to do next.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Everyone Has Standards: Clarkson is reluctant to kill the shrew.
- For Inconvenience, Press "1": The registration process has an interactive voice response system, annoying Clarkson.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: The West Oxfordshire Town Council, as usual.
- Primal Fear: Kaleb is afraid of rodents.
