Ed Sheeran lines up hay bales to hide 'wildlife pond' that he turned into $600,000 personal swimming pool
After aerial pictures of country singer Ed Sheeran's estate in Suffolk, England, surfaced online, his neighbors started complaining that he had been using a "wildlife pond" as a swimming pool and strategically placed bales of hay around the body of water to stop people from seeing the illegal construction.
When the 28-year-old musician had originally proposed a plan to develop the pond, his application said that it would solely be to “support nature conservation… providing a natural habitat for breeding and wetland invertebrates such as dragonflies and water beetles, as well as providing a source of drinking water to birds and mammals.”
As a result, in 2016, the East Suffolk council officials made it clear that the pond could have “no other uses” would definitely never be used for “recreational leisure such as swimming.”
As such, Sheeran only received permission for the jetty and steps in order “to enable access to the pond in the event of maintenance and emergency.”
However, according to the photos, the 'Photograph' singer has taken the liberty of constructing a changing room next to the pond as well as a fence around the one side of the pool which was visible from the lane adjacent to the property. The fence in question was eight feet tall and consisted of three bales on top of each other. In addition, he had also installed support poles. The rest of the pond was hidden by a hedge.
"It all seems very strange but in actual fact it appears to have been very carefully thought through," one neighbor told Daily Mail. “The bales have been placed precisely in the right places and at the right angle to shield his pool.”
The residents living near the area were convinced that the singer was in fact turning the pond into his personal swimming pool that he could use to impress his celebrity friends. “I believe that the development of the site is more about creating an environment for a ‘wild lifestyle’ rather than the actual ‘wildlife,'” Tony Robinson, another neighbor, said.
Kenny and Carol Cattee, who have complained previously about loud music on the estate, said: "The so-called wildlife pond would now appear to be more like a swimming pool, which is somewhat different from the application.”