Ed Sheeran reportedly criticised by Suffolk neighbours for using “wildlife pond” as swimming pool

Ed Sheeran has reportedly been criticised by his neighbours in Suffolk for using a “wildlife pond” he applied to get built in his estate as a swimming pool.

Daily Mail reports that an Instagram video that Sheeran shared earlier this week (August 19) has rekindled tensions between the singer and his neighbours. In the clip, which is narrated TikTok-style by friend Benny Blanco “for the lols”, Sheeran shows fans a day in his life – and it includes a shot of Sheeran taking a dive in the pool in a pair of swimming trunks.

The issue here for his neighbours is that, per Daily Mail, Sheeran applied to local council in 2016 for permission to build the pool in his £3.7million estate by calling it a “wildlife pond”. Planning documents state that the pond would “support nature conservation” and provide “a natural habitat for insects, amphibians and birds”.

Since then, his neighbours have been up in arms over what appears to them to be a personal swimming pool instead of a “wildlife pond”. In 2019, council authorities deemed there was no planning breach after a visit following local complaints.

Sheeran’s Instagram post has since gotten neighbours riled up over the pool again. One of them claimed to Daily Mail that Sheeran is “taking the mick” out of the lingering friction.

The main property, dubbed “Sheeranville”, is a 16-acre estate near Framlingham, Suffolk, which he shares with his wife Cherry Seaborn and their daughter Lyra Antarctica. It includes the main house, Wynneys Hall, which he bought in 2012, along with three adjacent houses.

“’When they first applied for that, it was supposed to be a wildlife pond, but it just escalated from one thing to another,” the unnamed neighbour tells Daily Mail.

“From our point of view, it’s one thing after another, and for us it’s completely ruined our outlook and everything. We are no longer happy here and we feel like we have lost a lot. He might be Mr Nice Guy to everyone else, but he just does what he likes.”

In 2022, Sheeran submitted proposals to build a burial chamber under a private church on his Suffolk estate, which also has its own pub in a converted barn, a fruit orchard, heart-shaped pond, luxury treehouse, recording studio and greenhouse, as well as an indoor swimming pool and fitness complex.

Last weekend (August 18), it was reported that Sheeran purchased a minority stake amounting 1.4 per cent in the Ipswich Town football club. Sheeran has been the front of shirt sponsor for its Men’s and Women’s teams since 2021.