Travellers’ site opposed by actor Martin Clunes recommended for council approval
The Doc Martin star and others in Beaminster, Dorset, have objected to the plans.
Councillors have been recommended to approve a planned permanent Travellers’ site on land next to the Dorset home of Doc Martin star Martin Clunes.
The Wuthering Heights actor and others in Beaminster, Dorset, have objected to the plans by Theo Langton and Ruth McGill.
The couple, who have lived in a 45ft by 16ft (13.7m by 4.9m) mobile home on land they own at Meerhay for 25 years, have applied for planning permission to continue living there permanently.
Officers at Dorset Council had recommended the plans for approval at its western and southern area planning committee in April 2025 but the case was deferred after concerns were raised about the risk of flooding at the site.
But after a flood risk assessment found that any risk of surface water flooding was not great enough during the 100-year estimated “lifetime” of the development, the plans will go back before the committee on February 26.
And officers have recommended the plans to be approved with a number of conditions.
These include that the alterations to the site can be in place only while Mr Langton and Ms McGill are resident and removed within four months of them no longer “permanently occupying” the property.
And the conditions would limit the number of residential caravans on the site to two.
Clunes and his wife previously made a submission to the committee expressing their concerns over the proposals, including the recommendation of the council’s gypsy liaison officer that Mr Langton and Ms McGill should be considered as “New Age Travellers”.
An officer’s report to the committee said: “It is very clear they follow and are a part of the New Age Traveller community and have been for many years.
“Although they are not ethnic gypsies, I am more than satisfied they are New Age Travellers and have a lot of friends and support in the new Traveller community.”
In response, Clunes wrote: “It cannot be concluded that the applicants are persons of nomadic habit of life due to them visiting music and other festivals each year to sell items and help set them up.
“This would mean that many, if not all, stallholders at such festivals, as well as the roadies who travel with the festival organisers, retailers and bands would be classed as gypsies and Travellers within the planning definition, which clearly is not the case.”
The application is for continued use of land as a private residential Traveller site for “sole use of the applicants and family” and to include the use of a barn as a workshop, along with a mobile home, a touring caravan and a van to be based on the site.
