Martin Clunes, renowned for his roles in Doc Martin and Men Behaving Badly, has publicly challenged his neighbours who identify as New Age Travellers, disputing their claim to official traveller status. The disagreement centers on a planning application to formalize their woodland site and caravan as an authorized residential traveller location near Clunes’s Dorset property.
Theo Langton and Ruth McGill, the New Age Travellers in question, have lived in a 45ft by 16ft mobile home under a temporary licence for over 20 years. Their current planning application seeks permission to use the land permanently as a private traveller site for themselves and their family. The proposal includes using a barn as a dayroom, workshop, and storage, alongside a mobile home, touring caravan, and van.
Clunes argues that the site and lifestyle do not meet the legal criteria for traveller status, citing the neighbours' dress, absence of basic amenities on-site, and their festival attendance as insufficient grounds. He described their attempts to classify the site as a legitimate traveller location as “cynical” and “dishonest.”
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After concerns about flooding delayed a council decision last month, Clunes recently submitted further comments contesting their legitimacy. He stated, “(They) cannot claim they are travellers because of the way they project themselves either by their dress, living conditions, associations, or attendance at music festivals. Visiting festivals to sell handmade items is not evidence of a nomadic lifestyle.”
Clunes emphasized that planning decisions should be grounded in law and policy rather than popularity or lifestyle appearance. He noted that many festival stallholders and workers travel seasonally without qualifying as travellers. He proposed two possible courses: denial of permission with a timetable for site relocation, or granting a temporary permit conditional on actively seeking alternative accommodation.
The actor also raised concerns about the potential precedent the approval could set. Friends of the applicants reportedly purchased nearby land to establish a New Age Traveller commune, with plans for polytunnels and shepherd’s huts. Clunes warned that permanent permission “would encourage others to pursue similar planning concessions, creating issues for local authorities.”
Dorset Council’s planning officers initially recommended approval, describing the site as sustainable and noting minimal visual or residential impact. However, the planning committee deferred the decision due to flooding risks and new legal input from Clunes’s team. The application continues to face scrutiny after more than two years of debate.
The land dispute is personal for Clunes, whose family owns the adjacent 130-acre Meerhay Farm near Beaminster, purchased from the Langton family in 2007. The contested site lies just 300 yards from Clunes’s £5 million farmhouse, deepening the local tensions surrounding this enduring dispute.