A couple in Buckinghamshire have been given permission to build a 23m long swimming pond in their garden.

Thomas and Sarah Gibney can now build the new pond at Cherry Tree Farm, the Green in Ley Hill near Chesham, a property they have owned since 2016.

The applicants said they would keep the body of water ‘visually appealing’ by keeping nutrient levels very low to ensure it is ‘clean and clear’.

Their plans read: “Swimming would not be the main function of the pond, but people may want to swim in the pond from time to time.”

Proposals state that the pond’s purpose was to ‘benefit local wildlife’ and hopefully provide a habitat for insects like water boatmen, pond skaters, water beetles, dragonflies and damselflies.

The Gibneys said there would be no fish in the pond, as they ‘generally upset the balance of nutrients’.

The pond will be 0.25-0.5m deep around the edges, with a middle section of around 2.2m deep, measuring 4.95m wide by 17m long.

Black lining will be used to retain the water, with gravel and sand to be added in shallow areas, as well as a drain for periods of heavy rain.

Plans for the pond read: “The proposed pond would assist and support conservation and biodiversity by providing a natural habitat for insects, amphibians and birds which require access to good quality aquatic systems, as well as for a range of native aquatic and semi-aquatic plant species.”