Overview
- Dorset Council officers recommend permanent permission for Theo Langton and Ruth McGill’s woodland encampment near Higher Meerhay Farm, about 300 yards from Martin Clunes’ home.
- Proposed conditions tie occupancy to the applicants, require removal of site alterations within four months of their departure, and cap residential caravans at two.
- A flood risk assessment concluded surface‑water flooding is not significant over the development’s 100‑year lifetime.
- Officials say the couple meet the New Age Traveller definition with an economic travel pattern and reference Article 8 rights alongside a shortage of authorised sites in Dorset.
- Clunes and other neighbours object, disputing the caravan’s mobility and warning of harm to the protected landscape and precedent for similar developments.