A YOUNG Beaminster family face an uncertain future after an appeal to stay on their land was dismissed.

New age travellers Theo Langton and Ruth McGill and their two children, aged two and two months, live in a mobile home at Wintergreen Barn, Meerhay, just outside Beaminster.

Mr Langton's nine-year-old son from a previous relationship also stays there.

Mr Langton, a former town councillor, owns the site and has lived there for 10 years.

West Dorset District Council's enforcement notice requiring residential use of the site to cease was upheld after he unsuccessfully appealed in 2005, but the timescale in which he had to comply was extended.

This January the council refused his bid for temporary planning permission to change use of the land to station a residential mobile home for three years.

He appealed again and an inquiry was held in September.

But government planning inspector Richard Clegg has just ruled Mr Langton and his family must move because the site's 'continued presence... albeit for a limited period, would cause substantial localised harm to (the character and appearance of) this part of the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty'.

The acre site in a wooded area contains a roofless barn, mobile home, smaller touring caravan and parking space for Mr Langton and Miss McGill's car.

The couple earn money by travelling to summer festivals and putting on art and craft workshops, as well as local casual work in winter.

Mr Clegg found their way of life concorded with planning guidelines for travellers and the site was environmentally sustainable, being near local services.

He also said it would not have 'an adverse effect on the living conditions of local residents'.

But he was concerned about the site's visibility from two rights of way, which pass it - a bridleway and footpath - saying its appearance was 'alien and cluttered'.

Yet Mr Langton said walkers did not mind and many local people had signed a petition in support of him staying there.

He is involved with local green groups and does not see moving to a conventional house as an option, saying this would force them to increase their use of natural resources.

He said: "On one level we are all being told to live in an environmentally low-impact way, but if the council move us they are pushing our carbon footprint up," he said.

Mr Langton is contemptuous of the inspector's reason for refusal, saying: "If they could find a better reason we might listen to them, but what is natural about an AONB, because the whole of this land is man-made and these trees were planted here by men in the 17th century."

He added: "If they force us to move we will only move locally and wherever we go we are still in breach of planning law.

"We feel the council has movement to grant us permission because other people in situations like us have been granted permission, but they are just choosing not to."

The district council's development services manager John Greenslade said: "The enforcement notice is still in force and Mr Langton has yet to meet its requirements.

"If he fails to do so, this could lead to further legal action."