After resubmitting plans to build the swimming pool, the couple who purchased Cilla Black’s £3.8 million rural estate runs the danger of inciting conflict with their neighbours.
The old pool house is being replaced, and Cecilia Elrin and Damian Gully want to outfit it with a new sauna, plant room, changing rooms, and kitchen.
The initial proposal was turned down by Buckinghamshire Council in January of last year because it was a “inappropriate development in the Green Belt.”
The most recent designs, however, which were presented on Monday, August 8, make an effort to resolve some of the problems by reducing the floorspace and height of the pool house.
The expansive 17-acre mansion in Denham, Buckinghamshire, owned by the late Blind Date star was purchased by Ms. Elrin and Mr. Gully in 2016.
Bobby Willis and Cilla Willis purchased the home in 1970, and Cilla lived there until her death in 2015 at the age of 72.
The existing pool house, constructed in 1996 with a brick construction around a structural plywood portal frame, was allegedly only intended to last 25 years and has to be rebuilt, according to the new owners.
In January of last year, they submitted an application to destroy the current pool building in 2020, but this was denied.
According to the design statement by Jane Duncan Architects and Interiors, “The plans strive to modernise a structure that is not functional in its existing form.”
“We want to expand the plant room to add filtration and air handling equipment, restrooms, and to bring it up to modern standards by improving the insulation and using a sustainable heating technology.”
The plan is for replacing the structure surrounding the pool and extending the inside.
Because of this, “the planned building is in the same place as the current.”
The building’s size was initially extended by a third in the original designs.
The revised proposal will result in a reduction of 31 square metres in floor area as well as a 0.5 metre reduction in building height.
The pool’s size won’t change, but new landscaping will be put in next to the new structure.
Additionally, they intend to double the size of the changing rooms and add toilets and sinks to each of them.
The present sauna, restroom, and shower room will be converted into a large plant room, and the additional area will allow for the addition of a bigger sauna and storage room.
The new structure will also have an expanded terrace and a new kitchen.
It will be constructed of red brick to match the main house’s design, with powder coated aluminium glass windows and wood doors.
To replace the roof lights, three enormous roof lanterns will also be added, along with a number of glass doors that swing outward into the garden.
Rubber will replace felt as the roofing material.
Regarding the original plans, Buckinghamshire Council’s Service Director of Planning and Environment stated: “The proposed replacement outbuilding would be materially larger than the outbuilding on the site and would therefore be considered as inappropriate development, which by definition is harmful to the Green Belt.
The proposed replacement outbuilding would have a greater impact on the openness of the Green Belt than the existing outbuilding in situ due to its design, form, size, and scale, especially when taking into account the increased bulk present as a result of the raised eaves and the increase in floor space.
The “planned replacement outbuilding will adversely impact the Green Belt’s goals and objectives by contributing to the degradation of the Green Belt.”
According to Glen Harding, a forestry specialist, the idea for the property is to expand the current pool structure.
‘The shape of the current swimming pool will not change.
‘New landscaping will be put in close to the new structure.
“The proposed strategy needs the removal of a few very minor trees and shrubs which will not substantially damage the local or larger environment.”
The 1996 construction of Cilla’s swimming pool has drawn further attention since four different species of bats frequent the area.
Despite droppings being discovered on the walls, scientists determined that it was “unlikely to maintain a roost of significant importance.”
They came to the conclusion that the construction could proceed without endangering the environment, but that it could not be done in the chilly winter months when there are few insects to be found and any bats caught would need to be transported to a bat box.
To maintain the animals’ flight paths, mature trees in the region would also need to be preserved.
‘It is determined that the Pool Building is an autumn transitional roosting location for limited numbers of the most prevalent species of bat and does not support a maternity site,’ Jones & Sons Environmental Sciences said.
“The demolition of the Pool Building will have a small adverse effect at a site level but a minimal adverse effect on the broader context.”
The house is now undergoing a variety of rehabilitation initiatives, some of which include the intentions to build the swimming pool.
2019 saw the couple get conditional approval to tear down Cilla’s children’s playhouse, the conservatory, and two chimneys.
In addition to eliminating the exterior plant room, they built a two-story rear expansion with roof lanterns, a one-story side extension with a roof lantern, a rear dormer window on the first floor, and changes to the intended garden room.