Beckhams win consent for 91m lake at their Great Tew home - and they can have fish after all

And the celebrity couple will be able to stock it with fish, after West Oxfordshire District Council planners did not impose a condition to ban fish, recommended by an environmental officer who wanted the habitat for rare great crested newts to be protected.

It was expected the condition would be accepted but the final consent only demands that lighting be minimised, a wild flower meadow is retained and enhanced, hibernacula (underground refuge areas for wild creatures) are created and that bunding - which will use up excavated material and help to give the family privacy - must be planted with native trees and shrubs.

But the Beckhams will have to get work started quickly as the laws to protect wildlife demand that there is no disturbance to nesting and breeding species between February and August. That gives them five months to get the work done. Access to the property - Maplewood Barn - is along the same track used by visitors to the popular Soho Farmhouse, a couple of hundred yards away.

The development's approval comes soon after permission was given for a new security gatehouse, extension of a garage and the building of a connecting underground tunnel with wine cellar beneath the courtyard.

The background to the recent improvements to the Beckham family's country bolthole can be seen in Banbury Guardian reports here.