Wayne Rooney’s farmer neighbours get the green light to build outbuilding for 1,000 sheep

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Wayne Rooney‘s neighbours have been given the green light to build an outbuilding to hold 1,000 sheep.

After a year-long planning battle, the Brighouses – farmers who live next to the footballer’s £20million Cheshire mansion – were given approval for agricultural livestock and produce stores to breed sheep.   

The site borders the grounds of the six-bedroom luxury home the Derby County manager shares with wife Coleen, both 35, and their four sons.

Plans submitted to Cheshire East Council show the farmers plan on keeping 1,000 Australian sheep next door this year.

The expert sheep breeders use artificial insemination to genetically modify their flock, making them popular amongst farmers.

There will be a dark-room laboratory next to the footballer’s land, which is used to carry out the lamb modification.  

Neighbours Brighouse Farms Ltd have applied for retrospective planning permission for the farm buildings to bump up their flock to 1,000 sheep.

There are two sheds which have a combined floor size of 1,886 metres squared.

The plans state: ‘The buildings have been designed to be within keeping of other modern buildings in the surrounding area of Cheshire.

‘It is essential that the sheep are housed during certain periods within the year, this includes during lambing and also during service.

‘The hay which is produced on the land needs to be stored immediately following harvest to ensure that the quality does not deteriorate.’

One of the sheds will contain a ‘dark-room laboratory facility which is used for the handling and storage of sheep semen and embryos for artificial insemination’.

The proposals also explain the farmers’ experience in the high-tech breeding programme, which goes on next to the footballer’s manor.

They state: ‘Mrs Brighouse combines her qualities and farming experience with her scientific approach to the frequent lambing system.

‘Using a synchronised oestrus breeding programme to facilitate batch lambing, via natural and cervical artificial insemination techniques to genetically enhance to improve AI technique and realise desired traits of the flock.’

The plans say the biosecurity of the site will be maintained.

The parish council objected to the proposals, saying it was worried that the farm buildings could be turned into houses.

It said: ‘Our main concern is that the long term intentions of this site and buildings is not for agricultural use but rather to secure another future residential development site.’

However the Rooney family did not object publicly.

The farm buildings are a stone’s throw from the football star’s own shed which he has built to store tractors.

The England legend’s property near Knutsford, Cheshire, has been mocked for looking like a Morrisons supermarket.

The three-storey mansion has an orangery, bar, TV room, snooker room, cinema and wine cellar.

It also has a huge indoor swimming pool surrounded by a glass pavilion, a hot tub, plunge pool, steam room and ‘his’ or ‘hers’ changing rooms.

The ex-Premier League star’s pad boasts an extensive patio, landscaped gardens, a luxury car garage and a stable block.

It also has separate lifts – one for the family, the other for visitors to avoid the social faux pas of using the couple’s own downstairs loo. 

Rooney’s property portfolio also includes a £5m sprawling Barbados villa, which he rents out for £25,000 a week and a £320,000 waterfront apartment in Florida.

It comes after Rooney was embroiled in a controversy this past week after he was pictured on a night out in Manchester with three young women.

He fell asleep in a hotel room after partying before snaps of his night out were widely shared.

Rooney claimed he was blackmailed before the police decided not to pursue and the footballer bought the copyright to the photos.