AN AWARD-WINNING actor’s decision to stay in Brighton seems complete after he submitted plans for a new pool at his millionaire home.

Steve Coogan seems set to stay as one of the city’s celebrity residents after submitting plans to build a pool and pool house in the garden of his £3.3 million pile.

The Alan Partridge and The Trip star was all set to leave Sussex after putting his grade II-listed Ovingdean Grange home up for sale for £3.3 million in the summer.

But the 50-year-old had a change of mind after taking the seven-bedroom property off the market.

A blooming romance with Downtown Abbey’s Daisy Lewis is rumoured to be behind the change of heart, according to reports in the Daily Mail.

Mr Coogan bought the historic property in the summer of 2011 after the mansion had been on the market for around a year.

As well as seven bedrooms, the mansion has six bathrooms, four reception rooms, a kitchen and orangery, an entertaining and office suite and a cinema while a former dairy has been converted into a billiards room.

The 17th century property has a rich history having supposedly housed King Charles II overnight as he fled to France during The English Civil War.

Ovingdean Grange, which was originally built for the church warden of nearby St Wulfran’s church, was also immortalised in print in the 1857 eponymous novel by W Harrison Ainsworth.

The swimming pool and one storey pool house is proposed for the north east corner of his garden and the actor is employing Upper Beeding-based Tony Rodgers Building Consultants as agents for the project.

The comedian has made a similar splash before having had a similar pool built in the garden of his former six-bed Regency townhouse in Wilbury Road, Hove, which he moved out of in 2011.

One neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said: “You never ever see Steve Coogan, he is never around in the village, not at all.

“He is a very private person.

“Everybody knows what his lifestyle is like, or indeed any film star really, and so it’s unlikely that he would spend that much time here as his base.”

A decision on the plans are expected early in the New Year.