The name's pond ...birds flock to 007 frontrunner's lake

Aaron wins over locals in planning row

- Tom Bevan

LEADING James Bond contender Aaron Taylor-Johnson has dug himself out of a huge hole by attracting birds to his land with a new lake.

The British actor, 34, and his film director wife Sam, 57, faced the wrath of their neighbours when they excavated the one-acre-sized basin in the grounds of their historic home without planning permission.

But they have now been given the green light after locals admitted the lake and a smaller pond had done wonders for birdlife in the area.

One neighbour, Amy Fukuyama, told the planning committee: "We now regularly see and hear flocks of geese flying over and can hear a tawny owl on occasions, which I don't recall hearing before.

"I fully support any application which would encourage such activity in our area."

Floods

The Taylor-Johnsons met on the set of Sam's 2009 John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy - in which Aaron played the Beatle and moved into their Grade II listed farmhouse in Somerset's Mendip Hills in 2012.