Neighbours of Ed Sheeran have described the singer’s so-called wildlife pond as ‘a sham’ after he filmed himself leaping into it for a swim.

One angry villager accused the Shape Of You star of ‘taking the mick’ after he insisted to council officials that his water feature was a wildlife pond rather than a swimming pool.

Sheeran had been granted consent to excavate the pond in the centre of a field which he planted with trees on his rambling £3.7million estate in Suffolk.

He stated in planning documents that the kidney-shaped pool would ‘support nature conservation’ and provide ‘a natural habitat for insects, amphibians and birds’.

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Ed Sheeran applied for permission to build the large kidney-shaped structure in 2016 but was met by concerns from neighbours who claimed it would promote a ‘wild lifestyle’

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Sheeran posted a  video of him diving into his specially installed pond on the grounds of his £3.7 million Suffolk estate near Framlingham

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Sheeran had been granted consent to excavate the pond in the centre of a field which he planted with trees on his rambling  estate in Suffolk

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Sheeran added a jetty and steps in 2017, leading to council staff making it clear it should not be used for ‘recreational leisure activity, such as swimming’.

But his immediate neighbours Kenny and Carol Cattee complained at the time: ‘The so-called wildlife pond would now appear to be more like a swimming pond.’

Suffolk Coastal District Council investigated the site in 2019, and concluded that there had been no planning breach.

A council spokesman said: ‘There was no evidence that it is not a wildlife pond, as plants are growing in and around it, or that the planning conditions had been broken.’

Sheeran was later successful in removing the ban on swimming and other leisure activities in and around the pond, after arguing it was unreasonable and unnecessary.

But some of his neighbours have now been upset by him posting a video on Instagram showing him jumping off the jetty and swimming in the pond.

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Built in 2016, the pond sparked a furious backlash from locals living close to Sheeran’s estate

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In 2020 Sheeran splashed another £10million on the London property market growing his empire to 27 flats, houses, and mansions, as well as his own 16-acre estate in Suffolk

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‘Filmed a day in the life and had Benny Blanco narrate it for the lols,’ he captioned a video of him sitting by the pond

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A neighbour who asked not be named said he had previously heard ‘yelling and splashing’ from the pond, suggesting Sheeran and his guests were swimming in it.

He said: ‘I’m not particularly happy about what is going on. You can actually hear him around the pond.’

When shown the video of Sheeran in the water, he added: ‘What you have shown me there is him taking the mick. It is exactly like we said it was going to be.

‘When they first applied for that, it was supposed to be a wildlife pond, but it just escalated from one thing to another.

‘It is like everything that has gone on. The cart lodge should never have been there. It was refused when it was further back, and it went to appeal and they said he could have it there.

‘From our point of view, it’s one thing after another, and for us its completely ruined our outlook and everything. We are no longer happy here and we feel like we have lost a lot.

‘He might be Mr Nice Guy to everyone else, but he just does what he likes.’

The singer famously created his estate, dubbed ‘Sheeranville’ by locals after buying up a string of neighbouring properties and land on the outskirts of a village near the town of Framlingham where he grew up.

The quirky features that he has added to his estate include a ‘chapel’ with a 25ft tower, a pub, a tree house, underground music, tunnels, an outdoor kitchen, sculptures, a walled kitchen garden, a mini paddock for chickens, goats and sheep and an entertainment area with a hot tub and fire pit.

No chemicals in the water, plants growing and I bet plenty of wildlife use it. Not a swimming pool but a lovely pond that can be used for occasional swimming . People swim in pools in our local river along with the wildlife.

But the neighbour said he had become fed up with Sheeran developing his land, and particularly turning a former arable field into his own piece of woodland.

He said: ‘It has ruined our life up here. We used to have farmland all the way round us. It’s one of the worst things for us.

‘It’s a very contentious issue when it comes down to what’s fair and not fair. With the deepest of respect to him, he’s a very talented young man, and he’s done very, very well.

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Giving an insight into his routine for a fun Instagram update, Sheeran leaped off the jetty into the water while record producer Benny Blanco narrated

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Sheeran first debuted his back inking in 2021 which just had daughter Lyra’s footprints in it and it’s been claimed the blank frames are for more children. Pictured by the pond

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Flashing his tattoos by the pond, which Benny joked looked like Crayola scribbles, he revealed the four photo frames inked on his back

‘But to move into a residential area like this, and do what he has done around us is totally out of order.

‘It’s all the development and we’re now enclosed by high hedges and security. I don’t like any of it. It used to be open fields all the way to Brundish, but that has all been taken away from us.’

The neighbour described Sheeran’s overgrown field as a potential fire hazard, saying:

‘The whole thing is just a tinder box.

‘It’s been let go and with the weather we have had, it’s all overgrown. It just needs the wrong kind of person to do something, and the whole place could go up in smoke.

‘It’s not nice any more. For somebody who has worked hard all their life, I feel slightly upset by it all.

‘He has people around, and there’s screaming and shouting over there. He even had a blinking security guard patrolling our perimeter with a generator going at night.

‘We bought this house because this was where we wanted to retire, but we didn’t want to retire to this.’

Another neighbour said: ‘The swimming pool is not that noisy, and it doesn’t happen that often – but it is not supposed to be a swimming pool

‘They can just say it is a wildlife pond and people sometimes swim in it.’

A third added: ‘The wildlife pond is a bit of a sham when it is actually being used as a swimming pool.’

Sheeran, 33, and his wife Cherry Seaborn, 31, were also seen swimming in their pond in the 2023 documentary about his life titled Ed Sheeran: The Sum Of It All, which aired on Disney+.

In an interview on Hit Radio in 2021, he said ‘people need to mind their own business’ about his use of the pond.

He said: ‘I do get in it – but it’s not a swimming pool… It’s essentially a pond. It is grey, filled with tadpoles and swamp stuff.’

The singer added that aerial photos made the pond look more blue than in real life, and that it was naturally filtered by the plants in it.

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Sheeran previously gave fans a glimpse of his £3.7m Suffolk estate, dubbed ‘Sheeranville’ in his Disney+ documentary series last year

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The documentary showed viewers the rustic yet modern kitchen, decorated with colourful artwork and sleek marble worktops

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Among the highlights in Sheeran’s huge home are his own recording studio

He added: ‘Before it was there it was like a ploughed field, so there is way more wildlife now, it’s surrounded by 14,000 trees that were planted, which is great for the environment… There’s loads of animals, we let the meadow grow up.’

Another neighbour Tony Robinson who had initially expressed concern about Sheeran’s pond told MailOnline that he had since changed his mind and had no problem with it.

Mr Robinson said: ‘I couldn’t care less. He has done a lot to his property and he’s calmed down.

‘I have absolutely nothing more to say. We are fine with him. He’s built his lovely chapel next to our field, and I supported that. I have no qualms at all with him any more.’

Speaking about his comment five-years-ago that pond was more about Sheeran having a ‘a wild lifestyle’ rather than a ‘a wildlife pond, he added; ‘That was probably right at the time.

‘But he has done a lot to redeem himself as far as I am concerned, so I have no particular issues. Since his family has arrived and he has had kids, he has become a very sensible father.’

Asked if he had a problem with Sheeran swimming in his pond, he joked: ‘No. not at all. I’m just waiting for an invite.’

Sheeran’s video showing a ‘day-in-the-life’ of the singer and released to his 48 million followers on Instagram this week, showed him starting his morning with coffee and porridge, riding his bike, painting and jumping into his pond in his swimming shorts while flashing his tattooed body.

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Dominic West is another celebrity said to have signed up to the natural pool phenomenon

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The Beckhams are among the many celebrities said to have splashed out on eco-friendly ponds or lakes

The video – narrated by record producer Benny Blanco – later showed him in an Ipswich Town shirt meeting players from the Premier League club which he recently bought a minority share in.

He’s not the only one to splash out on a pond, with The Beckhams and actor Dominic West among the celebrities to also add eco-friendly ponds or lakes to their homes.

Paul Mercer, of Norfolk-based The Swimming Pond Company, says that they are a clean, green alternative to polluted rivers or conventional chlorine-based pools.

He said: ‘We were one of the first companies to set up in the UK in 2006 when very few people had heard about swimming ponds.

‘We had very few enquiries and we would finish one contract and wonder where the next one would come from.

‘But now there are around 2,000 natural swimming ponds in the UK and we get as many as 300 enquiries a year.’

Mr Mercer used to swim in his local river, the Waveney, which divides Norfolk and Suffolk.

He said: ‘There is a great movement towards wild swimming but that has come the last few years when there has been a problem with pollution in our rivers and lakes.

‘The Waveney has had a bad press for pollution. I would not want to swim in it now and I am sure a lot of people feel the same way.’

A typical 180 square metre swimming pond costs around £160,000 and is divided into two zones of equal size separated by a wall.

The ‘regeneration zone’ is planted with aquatic plants such as reeds, which attract wildlife, and a pipe pumps clean, filtered water from it into the swimming zone.

The ponds tend to be much bigger than conventional swimming pools and lower maintenance as they do not require draining and refilling.