Clooneys sail into a storm over plans for Thameside river lodge
NO doubt they are keen to enjoy the stunning views of the Thames from their sprawling £10million manor house.
But it seems that George and Amal Clooney won’t be doing so from the pretty cabin they had in mind.
Plans for a wooden pavilion on the edge of their riverside property have sailed into choppy waters with officials, who told the A-list couple to go back to the drawing board.
Documents reveal the Clooneys were advised to scale down their ambitious blueprint for a timber-framed cabin surrounded by a veranda, referred to as the ‘River House’.
The Hollywood star, 53, and his British wife were told it was too large and jarred with their Grade-II listed home and ‘the riverside appearance of this part of the Thames.’ A local conservation group has also waded in, claiming a fence will make the riverbank ‘very unsightly’.
The couple bought the nine-bedroom home in Berkshire following their lavish wedding in Venice last September.
It is now undergoing a series of renovations to make it fit for the film star and human rights lawyer Mrs Clooney, 37 – and plans were submitted in March to add a 12-seater cinema, swimming pool with pool house and an annexe.
Now temporarily based in New York, the couple have resubmitted designs for a smaller River House.
Email correspondence published on the council’s planning website indicates the new plans are more likely to be accepted. There have been no objections to the pool house and the home cinema.
South Oxfordshire District Council said the original plans – which involved replacing a small existing building with a far larger one – would ‘harm the setting’ of their listed mansion and the riverside character of the area.
Raising separate concerns about fencing around the property, community group the Sonning and Sonning Eye Society said in a letter: ‘The Society wishes to express its concern that the proposed fence, which already appears to be partly in place, will collect extensive debris every time the River Thames floods and this will simply gather at the base of the fence and make the river bank very unsightly.’
Clooney is thought to have become interested in the area while shooting his 2014 film The Monuments Men. Nearneighbours will include Uri Geller and Home Secretary Theresa May.
‘Make it very unsightly’