A HIPPY at war with Martin Clunes over plans to build a traveller camp next to his country home is the heir to a fortune, The Sun can reveal.
Theo Langton and partner Ruth McGill have enraged their neighbours after their application for a caravan site next to the star's home near Beaminster, Dorset, has been recommended for approval.
The Men Behaving Badly star, 61, and his wife Philippa Braithwaite have objected to the scheme saying it would ruin the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Their planning agent, Will Cobley, said: "Our clients have lived at their property for many years and are concerned by the proposal, which seeks to authorise and intensify a nearby traveller use on a permanent basis."
In return Langton and McGill have slammed Clunes for his wealth, saying he is "landed and loaded".
But land registry documents show that Theo, 52, could inherit a substantial fortune after his own mum sold the mansion to the actor and his wife Philippa, 58, in 2007 for around £3million.
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Theo, a bohemian artist who has lived on the site for 25 years, later bought a remainder of the land from his mother, celebrated garden designer Georgia Langton, for £128,315 in June 2019.
A source told The Sun: "The suggestion that they're new age travellers and are penniless is nonsense.
"Theo will be a wealthy guy one day."
In 2015 the local council granted the travelling couple a five year temporary licence to live on the site.
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That expired in 2020 and they have been living there illegally ever since.
The couple want to legalise the settlement and turn it into a permanent private residential traveller site.
This will make their 45ft by 16ft mobile home on slabs legal along with a caravan that is already on site. It would also allow them to add two more caravans for visitors to stay in.
Beaminster Town Council said the land was 'unsuitable' for a travellers encampment as have neighbours Diana and Robert Clarke.
But it has now emerged that planning officials at Dorset Council are backing the application made by Mr Langton, 53, and Ms McGill, 48.
In his report, council officer Bob Burden cited the general lack of sites for 'gypsies, travellers and travelling showpeople' in Dorset as a major reason why it should go ahead.
He said the demand for such pitches has increased in recent years and insisted the development would not harm the natural beauty of the area.
He said: "Given the on-going policy and research background of lack of available site options, coupled with the minimal visual impact on the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty it is considered that the use of this site as a permanent base for this traveller family is acceptable."
Members of Dorset Council's planning committee will meet in the near future to vote on whether to go with the recommendations of granting the application approval.
The Clunes' have lived in Dorset for over 20 years.
The first bought a Grade II listed former vicarage in the village of Powerstock, near Bridport, in 2001 before moving into their current home in 2007.
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Ruth McGill, 47, previously said the couple had always had a "cordial" relationship with Clunes but labelled the actor "landed and loaded”.
She added: “We have a cordial relationship with them."
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