Tory MP ruins church view with his ‘awful’ swimming pool
FOR nearly 600 years its simple grandeur has dominated the village and the surrounding countryside. Sitting in the Mendip Hills, the Church of St James the Great with its majestic tower can be seen for miles. But the local MP has angered his neighbours in the Somerset village of Winscombe by building a ‘hideous’ zinc-roofed swimming pool in the shadow of their Grade I listed church. Conservative John Penrose, who is a government minister, and wife Dido Harding, the £6million-a-year chief executive of TalkTalk, claimed the pool would not be clearly visible before it was built at their Grade II listed home. But villagers argue that the ‘ugly and massive’ development can easily be seen from a public footpath running through the Mendips. One villager, who lives in a neighbouring farmhouse, said: ‘It is really awful right next to the lovely church. I’ve got no objection to them building a swimming pool – it’s the placement of it. It is hideous compared to the beautiful, historic buildings next to it.’ There has been a church on the site since the 12th or 13 century, but the present building dates from the 15th century with the 100ft tower being built around 1435. Mr Penrose, who is minister for constitutional reform and the MP for Weston-super-Mare, originally planned to cover the roof with grass to help it blend in. But this plan was later dropped and the finished building – which houses a 19-metre long pool – has a grey zinc roof. Anne Owen, who has lived in the village for 15 years, said: ‘It is large and it doesn’t fit with the church. It doesn’t fit with the village. Half of the time they’re not even living here because he’s in London.’ Parish councillor Cresten Boase said: ‘We are very proud of St James’s and it occupies a prominent position in the village. The swimming pool is a very extravagant, inyour-face structure. For ordinary families, being able to go for a ramble in the country is a wonderful thing and it does affect their view.’ Mr Penrose and his wife – who was made a life peer with the title Baroness Harding of Winscombe in 2014 – bought their property for £550,000 in 2000 but it is now estimated to be worth £1.25million. When they applied for planning permission in 2013, the parish council asked for the walls of the pool house to be faced with natural stone – but this request was dismissed by North Somerset Council. The district council gave the goahead but the architects later applied for an amendment to the roof. They proposed a curved zinc sheet, amid fears the grass would not grow in the shade. Winscombe and Sandford Parish Council objected again, but North Somerset Council approved the plans. In a report, it said the metal roof was an ‘improvement on the original design’ and would ‘blend with the lead on the church roof’. Baroness Harding, a mother-of-two, came under fire last year for earning more than £6million in 2014 after TalkTalk’s systems were hacked and customers’ details compromised. A spokesman for Mr Penrose said North Somerset Council and English Heritage had approved the pool’s construction twice. Its visibility from the path would be reduced once bushes are planted around it. Historic England, formerly English Heritage, said it had concluded that the swimming pool would have a ‘minimal impact’ on the setting of the church.