A neighbour has reacted with fury and slammed a new plan by David Beckham in the Cotswolds, calling it Miami or Blackpool-esque.
Former Manchester United and England footballer Sir David Beckham and his Spice Girl wife Lady Victoria Beckham have lived at their £12m Cotswolds mansion for around a decade.
Their Great Tew estate is found on two acres of land, with the barn conversion having had extensive renovations, including a glasshouse, a large pond, an underground wine cellar and an Astroturf football pitch.
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On several previous occasions, the celebrity family has clashed with locals over plans at the Oxfordshire home, including over changing an existing agricultural track to form a secondary residential access.
Now the Beckhams have angered a nearby resident once again with their plan to install festooned lighting around the pond at their home.
The application relates to a kidney-shaped pond and private island at their home in Great Tew, Oxfordshire. (Image: Tom Wren / SWNS)
A neighbour, James Worthington, said in a comment on the Beckhams’ application: “If I am not amiss, this pond ‘lake’ is in the countryside in a rural setting with field etc, around Maplewood Barn.
“Yet what is proposed is more akin to Miami or Florida not Great Tew.
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“Festooned lighting hanging along a ‘proposed bridge’… spotlights, is this really Great Tew or have I mistaken this area for Blackpool?”
He went on to ask where planned “wall lights” would be positioned, and added: “If the applicants want to live in suburbia, then why come to an area like Great Tew?
“What about the poor foraging and commuting bats?”
Mr Worthington added that the lights could become “a source of annoyance to people” and “harmful to wildlife” and said he felt they could “undermine enjoyment of the countryside or the night sky”.