For two years Martin Clunes has been at war with his neighbours over plans for a permanent traveller site next to his £5million farmhouse.
But the actor has been dealt a fresh blow in the planning battle, as his local town council has approved the site despite his protests.
Within 24 hours of Beaminster Town Council approving the plans earlier this month, Clunes drafted in a top barrister in a last-ditch attempt to stop the proposals which has prompted war with his neighbours who have criticised the Doc Martin star’s heavy-handed tactics.
They have also accused the TV star of installing a swimming pool on his property without planning permission.
Self-proclaimed ‘new age travellers’ Theo Langton and his partner Ruth McGill have lived in a 45ft by 16ft static caravan without running water or electricity for more than 20 years.
Their plot is just 300 yards from Clunes’s 130-acre Dorset farm in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
In 2022, the couple applied for permanent use of the land as ‘a private residential traveller site’, but Clunes has repeatedly objected to the plans.
Mr Langton and Ms McGill want to make their home legal, along with a touring caravan already on site, and allow a further two mobile dwellings for visitors to stay in.
In a memo of advice by John Steel KC, acting for Clunes, 62, and Philippa Braithwaite, 60, his TV producer wife, Mr Steel disputes the couple’s claim to be travellers, which would put them in a strong position with the council who are obligated to provide sites for them.
Mr Langton and Ms McGill cite their travels around ten festivals and fairs in the UK to sell jewellery and crafts as evidence that they are ‘new age travellers’.
But Mr Steel KC argues there is no ‘evidence of a nomadic habit of life’. He compared the couple to ‘roadies, caterers, people who sell goods on stands at events including craftsmen and artists’.
In his scathing report, Clunes’s lawyer argues that the couple has made ‘no effort whatsoever… to find alternative accommodation over a number of years’.
He added: ‘Theo Langton has received high quality private education including to secondary school level at Bryanston School and it is not as if he is incapable of spending time and effort to seek an alternative, more appropriate site.’ He also states that Mr Langton is ‘not without substantial resources’, citing plots in his name with the Land Registry worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Local resident and former Dorset councillor Ros Kayes described the battle as ‘real David and Goliath’. ‘It’s the most awful behaviour from people who’ve got money and feel entitled,’ he said.
He added that Mr Langton was ‘a really upstanding person who contributes to the community’ and advised the council on climate change issues. He said: ‘It’s very difficult for a council – when somebody is prepared to spend a lot of money – obviously the council has to protect its finances.
‘It’s really ridiculous… It seems to be a prejudice that Martin Clunes has against a certain lifestyle. That’s the only thing that I can think of – he does not want somebody whose lifestyle he disapproves of.
‘I think this opposition has changed people’s views of Martin Clunes. I think he was seen as a popular man, but I think now people have revised their opinions because they think it’s petty and heavy-handed.’
Another local has lodged a complaint to the council against Clunes, who they claim has built a swimming pool on his farm without planning permission.
But friends of the actor said that he was able to create a swimming pool under permitted development legislation, and did not need to seek planning permission.
Clunes bought Higher Meerhay farm near Beaminster for £3million from Mr Langton’s mother, the garden designer Georgia Langton, 80, in 2007.
Mr Langton bought his plot from his mother in 2019 for £128,315, after living on the land since 2002.
In 2015, the council handed the couple a five-year temporary licence to live on the site, and they have lived there illegally ever since its expiry.
Dorset County Council is set to consider Mr Langton’s planning application next month. Clunes did not respond to requests for comment last night.