Doc Martin star Martin Clunes insists 'hippie' neighbours are 'not travellers' amid acrimonious planning row near his country home
Actor Martin Clunes has insisted his 'hippie' neighbours are not travellers in the latest stage of an acrimonious planning row centering on land just 300 yards away from the £5 million farmhouse he shares with wife Phillipa Braithwaite.
The Doc Martin and Men Behaving Badly star has fought a long-running battle to try and stop New Age Travellers Theo Langton and Ruth McGill from turning their woodland plot and caravan into an official travellers site.
The couple have lived in the 45ft by 16ft mobile home on a temporarily rolling licence near Beaminster, Dorset, for more than 20 years.
They have applied for planning permission for continued use of land as a private residential traveller site for 'sole use of the applicants and family.'
But Clunes has hit out at the pair for claiming they are travellers based on 'the way they dress' and 'going to certain types of music festivals.'
The couple's plans include use of the erected barn as a dayroom, workshop and store, one mobile home, a touring caravan and a mobile van.
Clunes had claimed that the current residence did not meet the definition of a mobile home - and described the neighbour's attempts to classify it as one was 'cynical' and 'dishonest.'
A decision on the application that was due to be made at a council meeting last month was postponed after flooding fears were raised.
Fresh representations have now been made by Clunes on the council's planning portal where he questions their legitimacy as travellers.
The couple previously relied on evidence showing them as travelling to various festivals throughout the summer months in order to sustain their livelihood.
Clunes wrote: '(They) cannot claim they are travellers because of the way they project themselves either by the way they dress, or living on a site without basic amenities or the company they keep, or because they travel to certain types of music festivals.
'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.'
Clunes added: 'The decision must rest on planning law and policy - not emotion or popularity of an applicant.
'The applicants are locally well-liked and they and their site may give the appearance of a New Age lifestyle, but that does not entitle them to special treatment as they do not meet the legal definition of a gypsy or traveller.
'The applicants travel to festivals as do many other people. They have a stall at festivals and sell items made by them. No evidence more than this is submitted for it to be able to be concluded that it supports their livelihood.
'Many stallholders travel from festival to festival and roadies set up the stage and equipment, all travelling each summer from festival to festival or fayre.
'They are not classed as travellers, New Age or otherwise. The applicants travel to Portugal and Spain by road each summer. So do many others who are not Travellers.
'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.'
Clunes added that from his view there were now only two ways forward - to refuse permission and consider enforcement, allowing time to relocate, or to grant a temporary permission.
He argued this should only be if it was made clear it 'the applicants must actively seek an alternative site, starting now.'
He added: 'The onus is on the applicants to comply with policy - not the council to make exceptions.'
In his submission, Clunes added: 'There is evidence not only of a precedent being set but the beginnings of a New Age Traveller commune growing up on and around the application site.
'Friends of the applicants have bought the field opposite the Meerhay Manor, have applied for planning permission to start growing vegetables in large polytunnels and have applied to live on site in a shepherds hut.
'There is no doubt that if permanent planning permission is granted then others will copy the approach of the applicants to obtain a planning permission which will be difficult for the Council to resist.
'None of the conclusions to which the officers give weight to outweigh the harm identified or stand up to scrutiny. Further, the assessment of harm which is caused by the proposed development has been inadequately considered and is grossly understated.'
Planning officers at Dorset Council had earlier recommended to grant approval for the proposal but the case was pulled from the agenda last month after a last-minute letter from Clunes' lawyers.
A two-year legal battle has since ensued with the application again pulled from the agenda of a meeting last month where it had again been recommended for approval.
Dorset Council said of the delay: 'This is because a matter has come to the attention of officers since the publication of the agenda which will require further consideration.
'The matter relates to surface water flooding and will need to be considered before the application can be reported to committee.
'The application will be reported back to committee as soon as possible.'
In his report that was due to go to the committee, planning official Bob Burden said: 'The location is considered to be relatively sustainable and the proposal is acceptable in its design and general visual impact.
'There is not considered to be any significant harm to neighbouring residential amenity.
'There are no material considerations which would warrant refusal of this application.'
The Clunes' bought 130-acre Meerhay Farm near Beaminster, Dorset, from Mr Langton's mother, the landscape gardener Georgia Langton, in 2007.
The land at the heart of the planning row is around 300 yards from the £5m farmhouse where Clunes lives with wife Philippa Braithwaite.
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