Traveller site near actor's home set for approval

Plans for a permanent travellers' site on land near the home of actor Martin Clunes have been recommended for approval.

The Doc Martin and Wuthering Heights star was among a number of objectors from Beaminster, Dorset, who were against plans by Theo Langton and Ruth McGill.

The couple have lived in a 45ft by 16ft (13.7m by 4.9m) mobile home on land they own at Meerhay for 25 years and are seeking planning permission to continue living there permanently.

Officers at Dorset Council recommended the plans for approval in April 2025 but the decision was deferred amid concerns about the risk of flooding.

A subsequent flood risk assessment found the risk of surface water flooding was not great enough during the 100-year estimated lifetime of the development.

Councillors are recommended to approve the plans on 26 February with two conditions - that alterations must be removed if Langton and McGill cease to occupy the property and there must be no more than two residential caravans on the site.

Clunes and his wife had objected to the recommendation by the council's gypsy liaison officer that Langton and McGill should be considered as "new age travellers".

An officer's report to the committee said: "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", including the use of a barn as a workshop, with a mobile home, a touring caravan and a van to be based on the site.