Martin Clunes has penned a sarcastic letter to ‘pious’ council planning officers after a permanent travellers’ site was built next to his £5million home.
The Doc Martin actor vented his fury amid fears a second site could be arriving on his doorstep, after fresh plans for a new organic farm were submitted.
Earlier this year, Mr Clunes and his wife Philippa lost a four-year planning battle against New Age Travellers Theo Langton and his partner Ruth McGill, who were given permission to turn their temporary mobile home site into a permanent one.
The farm is located within a protected Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and is about 300 yards from the TV star’s luxury home near Beaminster, Dorset.
Now, a second set of neighbours on the other side of Mr Clunes’ farm, Andy Cream and Grace Burger, have added to his woes – as they plan to set up an eco-business selling fruit and veg boxes direct to the local area via e-bike.
Mr Cream and Ms Burger would like to build a storage barn, two polytunnels for crops and a greenhouse for what they describe as ‘an important part of a local food system that improves the food security, carbon footprint, health and biodiversity of the local area’.
To add insult to injury, the plans have the full backing of Mr Langton who is a passionate advocate of food security in the Beaminster area.
Mr Clunes, 64, fears the new plans are a prelude to the couple setting up a permanent home on the land just 150 yards from his farm.
Martin Clunes and his wife Philippa Braithwaite are seen attending a Dorset Council meeting at County Hall in Dorchester earlier this year
Mr Cream and Ms Burger’s proposed plans (seen here) include storage barn, two polytunnels for crops and a greenhouse
View showing Martin Clunes house on the right and Theo Langton’s woodland travellers site on the left
The Men Behaving Badly star claimed Dorset Council will ultimately allow Mr Cream and Ms Burger to do ‘whatever they like’.
It follows his dispute with Mr Langton and Ms McGill who had lived in a mobile home on a private wooded site for over 20 years on a rolling temporary licence from the local authority.
When that expired in 2022 they sought consent to remain there permanently, much to Mr Clunes’s anger.
The row turned ugly, with the actor accusing his neighbours of being ‘dishonest’ over their application and claimed they were not bona-fide travellers and therefore not entitled to a permanent site.
Meanwhile Mr Cream and Ms Burger initially submitted their plans for their eco-venture in July 2025 when they sought to build a temporary agricultural workers dwelling.
But this was dropped following backlash from neighbours, including Mr Clunes and TV producer Ms Braithwaite.
They resubmitted an application in April just for the farm.
Writing in a sarcastic tone, Mr Clunes said the council will help the couple achieve their ultimate goal of living there in the face of objections from local residents like him.
Theo Langton and Ruth McGill were granted permission to make their encampment a permanent site and add two spaces for travelling caravans so family and friends can visit
He said: ‘It seems that this application is the same as the original one made by this couple except that they no longer state that it is essential to their plans that they live at the site.
‘I think that it is safe to assume, given the flimsy nature of their business plan that living at the site is their ultimate goal.
‘From personal experience my advice to these applicants would be to carry on and do whatever they like on the land they have bought.
‘They can ignore any rulings or conditions applied by Dorset County Council as they will not enforce them.
‘After a few years of inactivity and a number of changes of the planning committee as their case is kicked down the line, the planning officer and committee will circle their wagons and hand-hold the applicants through an acceptance of whatever work or additions they have made to the land in the face of any objection raised by their neighbours and without any consultation with anyone affected by their actions.’
Mr Clunes went on to claim that ‘in this way’ the council would appear to have ‘not needed to enforce what they had not managed to enforce’.
He concluded: ‘At no point will Dorset County Council address, acknowledge or apologise for any lack of action on their part as they are answerable to no one and operate without regulation.
‘In their piety the planning committee will say that each application is judged on its own merits, this is nonsense, precedent is everything. You’ll be fine.’
Ms Braithwaite previously objected to the couple’s initial application when they announced their intentions to live on the land.
She wrote: ‘The applicants say they want to live there permanently to take care of the vegetables which seems a roundabout way to get round the planning system so they can eventually convert the barn to a house.
‘We have had so many years of battles with people in the area living in the woods above the site and at Wintergreen Barn; people come and go all the year round and live there when they want a place to stay – my feeling is the same will happen on this site,’
Martin Clunes pictured near his home in Beaminster in Dorset
She added: ‘The area is a protected AONB where any planning decisions must protect or enhance the environment – these applications do neither and a large polytunnel and barn will detract from this magical piece of ancient land.’
In their plans Mr Cream and Ms Burger say they want to create ‘a traditional market garden growing more than 100 varieties of seasonal vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers across one acre of minimal tillage land’.
They state produce from the market garden will be sold direct to the local community via a ‘veg box’ scheme and to local businesses, such as greengrocers, restaurants, cafes and delis.
These deliveries will be made by electric bike to reduce the carbon footprint of the produce.
They say production of fruit and veg within Beaminster would reduce reliance on imported goods and help create resilient local food supply chains, supporting the local economy.
There has been a mixed response to the plans, with dozens of members of the community supporting them – including Mr Langton and Ms McGill.
But many others have objected to the scheme.
Beaminster Town Council is against the plans, stating that the polytunnels and greenhouse would be out of keeping with the protected rural area.
Strangely, one person who objected was a Mr Strang – the same name as Martin Clunes’ character in the nineties sitcom Men Behaving Badly.
