Pond or pool? Why the new celebrity status symbol is upsetting the neighbours

From David Beckham to Prue Leith and now Ed Sheeran, man-made lakes have become the new must-have for the eco-friendly elite

When is a swimming pool not a swimming pool? That was the question posed this week after singer Ed Sheeran was filmed diving into what he had adamantly declared was a “wildlife pond”. Britain’s favourite busker is making waves in more ways than one as his well-publicised dip risks reigniting a bitter planning dispute with his local council and angry Suffolk neighbours.
Sheeran had previously been granted consent in 2016 to build his stylish kidney-shaped pool on the basis that, as he wrote on his planning application, it would “support nature conservation” by providing a habitat for “breeding and wetland invertebrates such as dragonflies and water beetles”.
But suspicions were raised when Sheeran added steps and a jetty to the pool the following year – accoutrements that would surely be more useful to human visitors than any resident critters. As his neighbours Kenny and Carol Cattee pointed out: “The so-called wildlife pond would now appear to be more like a swimming pool.” 
Suffolk Coastal District Council then waded in, cautioning that the site must not be used for “recreational leisure activity, such as swimming”. The council visited again in 2019 and was satisfied that Sheeran had not breached planning regulations.
However, Sheeran subsequently managed to get that ban on leisure activities lifted and has since regularly used the pond as a swimming pool – to the fury of those who live near his £3.7 million estate, known as “Sheeranville”. One neighbour, on seeing this latest video, accused Sheeran of “taking the mick”, adding: “He might be Mr Nice Guy to everyone else, but he just does what he likes.”
Sheeran is far from the first celebrity to make this particular purchase. Over the past few years, the man-made but organic-looking “status lake” has become the new must-have for the elites, ranging from David Beckham to Prue Leith.
“It’s all about one-upmanship and keeping up with the Joneses,” explains PR consultant Mark Borkowski. “Now everyone has to have one of these wild lakes because of trendsetters like Beckham. These people have all got sumptuous properties in the countryside and the pools look beautiful. They’re greener because you’re not using all those nasty chemicals, so you can show that you’re at one with nature.
“They’re also easier and cheaper to maintain because you’re not heating them, so they’re more compatible with UK weather. Whether you’re a celebrity or not, we’re all looking at energy costs.”
Borkowski points out that these ponds fit handily with several modern fads, such as “the rise of wild swimming and cold-water swimming, as popularised by Wim Hof, and how good it is for your physical and mental health”. 
“Plus everyone now wants to show off their eco-friendly credentials. If you’re going to appeal to millennials and Gen-Zers, that’s important,” he adds. “These pools aren’t as brash or blingy – the kind of massive heated swimming pool you’d have seen 10 years ago, with steam coming off it, isn’t a good look now.”
But while natural ponds might endear these celebrity purchasers to their earnestly eco fans, they are souring relations with those who live close to them. As well as Sheeran’s recent spat, David and Victoria Beckham defied vociferous objections from their Cotswolds neighbours to build a 4,170 square metre lake in the grounds of their £6 million home in 2021.
In 2022, Fifty Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson became embroiled in a row with neighbours when she and her actor husband Aaron began digging a massive hole for their lake, in Somerset, without obtaining planning permission. Following objections from villagers about the eyesore crater, the council halted the work.
The couple have since submitted a retrospective planning application, and a report by consultants PlanningSphere claims that the pond is actually intended to “alleviate severe and frequent surface water flooding”. The report also promises that it will be home to toads and newts, and will provide foraging for bats, birds, dormice and otters. 
Other celebrities to jump on the natural pond bandwagon include Prue Leith, The Great British Bake Off judge, who taught her grandchildren how to swim in the 3-metre-deep pool on her Oxfordshire estate, which features an elaborate bridge and pagoda.
Dominic West, who played Prince Charles in The Crown, has meanwhile built a 30-metre-long lake beside his home in the Cotswolds. The actor enthused that swimming in the natural pool “makes me feel bulletproof, while of course there’s also that immediate connection to nature”.
Us mere mortals can experience that euphoria too – if we’re willing to splash out. A natural pool from company Gartenart begins at around £140,000 for a pool of up to 100 square metres and goes up to around £400,000 for a 500 square metre pool. A standard installation will take about 7-12 weeks.
Some like The Swimming Pond Company will first do a site appraisal, assessing elements like your property boundaries, soil type, existing structures, and surrounding landscape, before making a tailored recommendation. A typical 180 square metre pond from them costs about £160,000.
Paul Mercer, director of the company, says they were one of the first swimming pond businesses to set up in the UK back in 2006, and that there has been a definite boost in orders recently. “Now there are around 2,000 natural swimming ponds in the UK and we get as many as 300 enquiries a year,” he says.
However, such a pool isn’t quite as achingly environmental as it might appear. It is hardly a muddy hole in the ground, given over to nature: it still requires lining, a filtration system, and a circulation pump to prevent algae growth. Most people also add steps and decking.
Still, there are no chemicals needed, such as chlorine, and the pools are fairly low maintenance. You just need to trim any aquatic plants that you introduce, skim surface debris such as pollen and leaves, and vacuum the floor a few times a year. 
As Sheeran’s woes illustrate, there are some planning regulations to navigate. These wild ponds fall into the same category as swimming pools, which means you don’t generally need planning permission unless your property is listed. However, different rules apply if you’re looking to build your pool on agricultural land or in an Area of Outstanding Beauty. Then you do need to apply to the local council for planning permission.
Sheeran’s application was a triumph of virtue-signalling – but how green are these pools really? Dr Hannah Robson, Wetland Science Manager at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, cautiously welcomes this trend. “We mapped historic ponds in the Severn Vale area and found there was a 60 per cent decline between 1900 to 2019, which means a massive loss of habitats. Ponds used to be a vital part of our rural landscapes, used for watering cattle or fish stocking.”
Robson says that to be a good habitat, these new man-made ponds should be as vegetated as possible, though she admits that “plants might not make it easy to swim in. But it’s key to creating diversity in habitats – for birds and insects. Birds would probably use it more for feeding than nesting, though. You wouldn’t be very popular with a swan or a duck if you kept swimming right by their nesting site.”
The trouble is that ponds should really go through several successional stages, Robson explains. “When a pond is first dug it’s very open, clear water. Gradually, leaves fall in and it fills up with mud and becomes shallower, ending up as a damp depression in the ground. Then you can dig it out and begin the cycle again.
“That way, you have ponds at different stages which work for different species. But if people artificially keep their ponds at that first clear stage, so they’re nice for swimming in, you’re only helping a small portion of the natural population.” In other words: it’s better than nothing, however it doesn’t really address deep-seated environmental problems.
Sheeran, Beckham and their ilk may be trying to pass off owning a luxury private pool as a selfless act of conservation – while skirting planning rules – but it’s a half-measure at best. Never mind the visiting invertebrates: it’s these celebrity dissemblers who look spineless.