Nightmare for Charlotte Church as she pulls plan for ‘dream’ eco-retreat
HERS was the Voice of An Angel — one which reputedly propelled her to a £ 6 million fortune before she turned 14. But Charlotte Church could now be forgiven for howling out an aria of anguish.
I can reveal that her dream of transforming a 16th- century, three- storey mansion into a wellness eco-retreat — offering guests cold-water swimming, foraging and yoga — threatens to sour into a bitter nightmare after falling foul of environmental and planning bigwigs.
They have expressed particular concerns about her plans for treating and disposing of waste from four proposed log cabins, with the ecology department of the local council warning of the deficiencies of many ‘private sewage treatment systems’.
Told by Natural Resources Wales that she supplied ‘inadequate information’, the singer, 36, has now withdrawn the planning application to build the cabins and a ‘bath house’ in woodland on the 47-acre property, Rhydoldog House, in Powys, mid-Wales.
It’s the latest development in the 16 months since she acquired Rhydoldog — once the home of Laura Ashley — for £1.5 million. Since then she has sunk ‘pretty much’ her entire life savings into establishing a retreat which would be in harmony with the environment.
Part of it, at least, would, she hoped, be open and ready for guests by June — otherwise, she would be ‘broke’. But that deadline came and went — all recorded by a fly- on- the- wall documentary series, Dream Build.
Church, who’s married to musician Jonathan Powell, alerted fans in July that there would be a second series of Dream Build. ‘ We are so close to finishing,’ she announced.
Perhaps the series will now be re-titled ‘Dream On’. . .