Zeta's home privacy row

Catherine Zeta Jones is known to demand her privacy.

She must have dreamed her new £ 1.5million house on an exclusive mini-estate in her home town would at least offer that.

But, even before it is finished, the luxury building has become a tourist attraction - much to the Hollywood star's annoyance.

This week, councillors - mixed with an assortment of celebrity spotters, builders and Swansea residents - turned up, trying to decide whether a businessman could set up shop next door.

Steve Gwynn, whose firm is developing the estate's three properties, hopes to run a telecoms firm from a building in front of Zeta Jones's house at Limeslade.

He has applied for permission to allow Carreras Communications to operate from The Barn, at the end of the drive.

However, the Oscar-winning actress and her husband, Michael Douglas, object.

They have hired a solicitor to fight the application, claiming they were led to believe the prestigious development would be private and secure.

'I am surprised at the lack of exclusivity,' said a councillor, one of 16 bussed to the site - together with planning officials - for a look. 'If I had paid that sort of money I would certainly want it back.' Celebrity spotter Evelyn Sandbach, from Chester, was equally bemused. 'I live near Michael Owen. His estate is private and exclusive and I can't believe how open all this is,' she said.

Zeta Jones's parents, Pat and Dai, are expected to live in the house when it is completed next month. The Hollywood pair will stay in the top floor during visits with their son Dylan and daughter Carys.

Mr Gwynn's firm hit back at the couple's objections. 'The noise and disruption caused by the business would pale into insignificance compared with that caused by the disruption of having a superstar living next door,' said a spokesman.