Dave ditches pool plan to protect next door’s ‘human rights’

HAVING a f ormerr prime minister livingg nearby has manyy a dvantages, nott l east the 24- hourr security and prospect of spot-ting famous visitors.

So when David and Samantha a Cameron (below) decided to install a swimming pool at their country home e in the Cotswolds, neighbours might have been delighted and hope for an n invite to take a dip on a summer’s day. Instead, some of them were enraged by the £50,000 plans, even claiming their human rights would be harmed. So the Camerons have now abandoned their proposals.

Mark and Katherine Smith, in their objections to the 46ft heated outdoor pool in a paddock bordering their Grade II-listed property, said that the development by their next- door neighbour — who used to be the area’s MP — would adversely affect the way they live.

The Smiths submitted 12 pages of objections, even citing the Human Rights Act, noting a person ‘ has the right to peaceful enjoyment of all their possessions’, which ‘includes the home and other land’. They added: ‘As an i mmediate neighbour to the site of the proposed developmentment, we are of the view it will have a serious negative impact on our standard of living. The development erodes the natural beauty of the area and the countryside.’ Cameron, 54, lives at the £1.5 million farmhouse with his wife Samantha, 49, and their son and two daughters. The pool would have had a black or grey tiled interior, and eight small underwater lights. It was to be built in an extended part of the garden that has until now been ‘left as meadow grass’, planning documents showed. He had a wool-insulated shepherd’s hut built on the property i n 2017, where he wrote his memoirs. It features a woodburning stove and can be moved on wheels, making it an i deal place to warm up after a swim. His spokesman declines to comment.