The owners of lakeside holiday lodges in Cambridgeshire have said their plans to expand will ‘enhance and not spoil’ the countryside.

Sharon De Luca and Angelo Dama run Waterside Lodges, in Green End, Landbeach.

The couple said their “unique and special” holiday lodges had become so busy that they wanted to build more to meet the demand.

Currently the pair run six holiday lodges, which overlook a private lake. They explained they are hoping to get planning permission from South Cambridgeshire District Council to build a further six lodges around the lake.

The site is also home to a range of animals, including donkeys, goats, alpacas, chickens, and peacocks, which are looked after by Sharon’s daughter Zoe Fitzjohn.

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The family bought the Waterside Lodges site around three years ago and said since then they had tried to create a ‘peaceful and lovely’ place for people to come and stay.

Sharon said: “We never knew about this place, we were living in Milton Road, we just drove past it one day and saw the sign saying it was for sale and thought we would have a look.

“I come from a bed and breakfast background, so it excited me and the place is lovely.

“It is a little hidden gem.”

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Sharon said when they bought the site there were only a handful of animals and explained how they ended up getting more.

She said: “We never came from a farming life, when we came here there were four goats, then these two [Angelo and Zoe] said they were going out to look at a donkey with a baby and they came back with the mummy donkey, the baby donkey, Jack the donkey, and three alpacas.

“So many customers have come to us and said ‘I was suffering with anxiety’ and now seeing the donkeys and everything else, they are so happy just to be able to see them.”

Zoe, who looks after the variety of animals, said: “People come here to experience a little escape away.

“It just feels a million miles away from the city, a lot of people say with their mental health that they are at peace here.

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“All the animals are really friendly, we have even got a chicken that knows her name.

“There is a bit of everything here, fishing, animals, just looking out on the openness of the fields, and the sky at night is amazing.

“Overall it is just a peaceful and mind settling place.

“We have loved it since we came here, it is nice for us to experience all of this and it is nice to be able to share it with the community and other people.”

Angelo said he used to run his own construction business, which he has now passed on to his son.

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He explained as the lodges got more and more busy he wanted to make use of his skills as a builder to create new lodges to meet the demand.

Sharon said she recognised some people might be concerned about the plans to build the new lodges around the lake.

She said: “I think people are more concerned that we have got a beautiful lake and we are spoiling it, but actually we are enhancing it.

“There is a whole load more land, we do not think we are impacting the countryside.

“We will do all the biodiversity net gain, have bat boxes, we will be improving it, we love the countryside feel about this and the wildlife.”

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Angelo added: “Until you actually turn up and look at it you cannot visualise it, all they see is it says six more and they think ‘oh my god what are they doing’.

“We know that we are enhancing it. One of the requirements we have discussed is to plant another 36 trees, plus wild gardens.”