Hitting back at claims from award-winning actress Kristin Scott-Thomas that French food is better than anything we have in the UK, Jeremy Clarkson has some stern advice for the new batch of local councillors.

Appearing on Jessie and Lennie Ware’s Table Manners podcast, Kristin had explained that while she was born in Cornwall her mother was from France, and French cuisine is a major part of her life. She added that while she loves cooking when she’s in France, she doesn’t tend to spend much time in her kitchen when she’s in Britain because our produce is’t food enough.

“I'm going to be brutal about it, but the produce is better in France than it is here,” she said.

But Jeremy has hit back, championing the produce from British farms. Admitting that he’s always had a bit of a soft spot for the English Patient star, he wrote in the Sunday Times: “Does Kristin think that French meat is better than British meat, because I don’t. I’m not saying theirs is worse but it’s definitely not better.”

He added that climate change has greatly improved the quality of tomatoes we grow in the south of the country, and our warmer summers and milder winters are enabling British wine-producers to rival their French competitors.

But, Jeremy concedes, while our produce can match anything the French have to offer, the way that it’s sold could be improved: “When Kristin says the produce in France is better than it is here, she means the shopping experience is better. Which it is,” he says.

In the wake of this week’s local elections, Jeremy has some advice for councils: “Make your town’s local market day a big thing. Turn it into a weekly event, a reason for going into town.”

He says that all it would take to ensure that every town could have its own thriving farmers’ market would be to relax a few rules – and strictly enforce one.

He says that if local authorities suspended parking restrictions and bus lanes, allowed bar and café owners to temporarily expand their premises onto the pavement and relaxed rules about street performers, there would be more of an upbeat, fiesta atmosphere to shop in.

“If it was fun to buy the food, then it’ll be more fun to cook it, which means it’ll taste better,” he says.

He does add that, alongside his looser regulations around farmers’ markets there are a couple of rules that should be strictly enforced: “Only allow local people and local allotment holders selling local produce to have a stall. If someone wants to flog second-hand telephones, or novelty sex toys, tell him to bugger off,” Jeremy suggests.