Martin Clunes suffers blow in furious row with ‘hippie’ neighbours building Traveller site full of caravans next door

MARTIN Clunes has faced a fresh blow in his bitter row with “hippie” neighbours building a Traveller site next door.

The actor, 63, became embroiled in a furious dispute with “dishonest” residents who pitched up just 300 yards from his 130-acre Dorset farm.

But experts ruled the Travellers do live in a mobile home and have approved plans for them to stay permanently on the property in their caravans.

The Men Behaving Badly star has been battling New Age Travellers Theo Langton and Ruth McGill for over two years.

They's had their own 40ft by 16ft static caravan on the land for more than 20 years already.

It is set up around 300 yards from the £5million farmhouse where the Doc Martin star lives withwife Philippa Braithwaite.

They applied for planning permission for continued use of land as a private residential traveller site for “sole use of the applicants and family.”

The plans include use of the erected barn as a dayroom, workshop and store, one mobile home, a touring caravan and a mobile van.

In fierce opposition, Mr Clunes previously sent the local planning authority an email in which he branded the plans “cynical and dishonest”.

The acting icon also brought into question whether Ruth and Theo are legitimate travellers – which would affect their right to have a site there.

Mr Clunes' barrister slammed the couple and claimed they failed to prove they travel to make a living.

Under planning law, travellers are required to leave their main base to travel for their livelihood.

But the pair argued they do go to different fairs and festivals during the summer selling hand-made products.

They submitted expert evidence from Dr Simon Rushton, a chartered town planner who has worked on traveller planning disputes for 15 years.

Now, in a fresh blow to Mr Clunes, a document uploaded to the Dorset County Council planning portal revealed engineers carried out an assessment on how the ‘mobile home' could be moved.

The Doc Martin actor strongly disagreed with this statement in a previous engineer's report.

He said: “The current guidelines are useful in that they state that a structure to be considered a mobile home must arrive at its site in no more than two pieces and in this way demonstrate some level of mobility.

“The building arrived in hundreds of pieces and took weeks to build and that is what makes it a building.”

The TV star said while the static home did appear to measure 40ft, there was no explanation as to how it could be transported to the site.

“There are three 90 degree turns… that no truck pulling a 40ft trailer could possibly get around,” he continued.

“It is my belief that this building lacks any ability to be mobile and was not constructed with any intention of mobility and to describe it as a mobile home is cynical and dishonest,” he added.

Following this, a fresh study was carried out by Penpole Engineering.

The report stated: “The overall dimensions of the mobile home are approximately 40ft in length with a width of 15ft.

“An earlier letter from Penpole Engineering Limited to the Clients, Theo and Ruth Langdon concluded that the mobile home is capable of being split into two sections down its long dimension and lifted to a typical articulated trailer.

“This desk study demonstrates that the mobile home could be lifted in one piece.

“The mobile home has no permanent connections to the ground and bears weight to paving slabs / concrete blocks via primary timber bearers.

“Services would be required to be disconnected from the unit prior to lift.

“Initial calculations, based on site visit, have been undertaken both for lifting the structure as a whole and in two separate parts.

“The mobile home in its entirety, excluding furniture, has been calculated to weigh approximately 13.35t given its construction.

“In order to be lifted, the mobile home would require removal of all internal loose contents, and separate furniture. Fixed furniture for example kitchen units may remain.

“This is to ensure the centre of gravity of the structure does not change during lift.”

This comes after planning officers at Dorset Council previously 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.

Mr Clunes and his wife Philippa Braithwaite bought Meerhay Farm near Beaminster, Dorset in 2007.

They acquired it from Theo's mum, the landscape gardener Georgia Langton.

Meanwhile Theo snapped up the plot next door from his mother and has lived in 40ft by 16ft static caravan for 21 years.

He has a rolling temporary licence granted by the local council.

Theo and Ruth live without running water and electricity.

But the couple want to make it a proper, permanent site, with two additional spaces for mobile homes.

Government policy defines a travellers' site as having space for mobile homes, caravans and utility buildings.

The definition for a mobile home is that a structure can be divided into two parts and picked up and moved on the back of a 40ft trailer.