Martin Clunes locked in war with travelling neighbours over huge caravan dispute

Doc Martin star Martin Clunes has reportedly emailed the local planning authority amid his feud with his traveller neighbours who have set up home close to his farm

Martin Clunes has reportedly been embroiled in a feud with his traveller neighbours after they set up their static caravan yards from his home.

The 62-year-old Doc Martin star lives on a sprawling 130-acre Dorset farm and is said to be fighting to get the site cleared after it was inhabited by self-styled 'new age travellers' Theo Langton and Ruth McGill. The couple's plans to convert a static caravan 300ft from his farm were reportedly recommended for approval by the Beaminster Town Council.

Martin's long-running feud with the neighbours has escalated as he is said to have written an email to the local planning authority to claim his neighbours - who have lived on a woodland plot they own for 21 years without running water or electricity - were being 'cynical and dishonest' in calling their home 'mobile'.

The couple have repeatedly been granted a temporary licence to stay on the site and have become popular with locals while integrating with the local community. In 2022, they reportedly applied for permanent permission to stay at the site by having the plot recognised as a travellers' site.

Along with their 45ft-long 'mobile' home, the site would have space for two travelling caravans so that their family and friends can visit them. Martin and his wife Philippa Braithwaite reportedly want them to leave and said the site is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

"To rely on the findings as evidence that the structure is a mobile home is an attempt to distort the definition of the guidelines," MailOnline said Martin wrote in the furious email. "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." The Mirror has reached out to Martin's reps for comment.

The government policy says that a travellers' site should have space for mobile homes, caravans, utility buildings and space for parking. A mobile home also needs to be a structure that can be split into two parts and easily picked up and relocated on the back of a 40ft trailer.

Locals have been divided by the entire ordeal, with one person hitting out at Martin by saying: "I can't imagine how it must feel for them to have their home so precariously balanced due to the opinion of a neighbour." Meanwhile, one local sided with Martin and commented: "This proposal is generally inappropriate for an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and has specific challenges including access to the site and the lack of basic services required for permanent residence and the protection of the environment."

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