From barbed wire fences to mega-mansion: Dubai ruler reshapes his Surrey estate

 

Now the Sheikh is planning on further transformation of his rural home counties estate.

In March, the council approved plans for a new house, which will be 1,002sqm above ground with a 1,495sqm basement.

The new structure will be 3.25 times larger than the original 770-square-metre building, which does not have a basement level. 

Eight en-suite bedrooms, including a master with its own lounge and walk-in closet will feature in the new abode.

The basement will have two further en-suite bedrooms, a living room, gym, pool, cinema, sauna and underground car parking.

Surrey Wildlife Trust highlighted concerns after evidence of roosting bats in the pool building, which is due to be demolished.

According to the planning officer’s delegated report, ’a bat mitigation strategy to avoid any adverse impacts from proposed demolition of the existing structures’ will  be implemented.

It adds: ’Surrey Wildlife Trust has commented that the works should proceed in line with the documents and recommendations by Dr Jonty Denton [who produced the bat surveys] and a condition requiring evidence of the mitigation and compensation being installed within the new building and grounds is recommended.

’With respect to amphibians, a precautionary approach to any clearance of suitable great crested newt habitat would be advisable and if any evidence of great crested newts is recorded, an informative to this effect will be included.’

The Sheikh’s team have submitted three lawful development certificates for permitted development, which are currently being decided by the council. 

This would include a new building for a garden equipment store and a home office.

Another is for the proposed games/party room and gym, while the third is for two detached garden buildings for a garage, garden store and ’a roof void which will form a space for bats’.

Last year, Sheikh Mohammed won a battle with local planning chiefs for the development of two semi-underground warehouses on his estate.

According to planning documents seen by Daily Mail, the warehouses will accommodate items used by his entourage of nearly 300 staff, including vehicles used by the Sheikh Mohammed’s private security, agricultural machinery and furniture from the properties on the estate.

Flooding experts at Surrey County Council lodged a planning objection against the proposed warehouses over concerns about the lack of provision for the drainage of water.

Runnymede Borough Council granted planning permission for the development but said the Sheikh’s planning agents should submit ’details of the design of a surface water drainage scheme’ to them for approval before construction can commence. 

The Sheikh’s plans to transform the historic estate have however come into conflict with the views of nearby residents. 

An unnamed neighbour told Daily Mail last year that the estate was like ’his own little kingdom’.

Margaret Parker, 66, who lives in a property just outside the estate, added: ’They do what they want up there. It’s a strange place. It feels like they want complete privacy but then why live in a village?

’The guards have had issues with dog walkers going through the land on a public footpath. They don’t like that. There’s been a lot of friction and issues. It’s created a real problem.’

Sheikh Mohammed’s greatest passion is horse-racing and he is the owner of the Godolphin stables, which has produced some of the leading thoroughbreds in the sport.

In the last 15 years, he has also transformed Dubai into one of the most modern cities in the world developing the Palm Islands, the Burj Al-Arab hotel and the Burj Khalifa skyscraper which dominates the skyline of the city.

He also helped start Emirates airlines, sponsors of Arsenal and Paris St Germain football teams.

Sheikh Mohammed has an estimated £14billion fortune and has had at least six wives, and is divorced from all but one of them, his first wife Sheikha Hind bint Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum.

The sheikh is also reported to have sired around 30 children.

He was engulfed in controversy following allegations in 2018 that his daughter Princess Latifa was being detained against her will in the United Arab Emirates, of whom the sheikh is vice-president.

Sheikh Mohammed was previously embroiled in a scandal over the detention of his daughter Princess Latifa in 2018.

She is reported to have escaped from the country that year, posting on Instagram: ’My father ordered his men to ’beat me until they kill me’. They didn’t allow me to travel or have any freedom of choice at all, I had to take it for myself.’

Princess Latifa was then picked up in international waters and returned to Dubai.

The High Court in London later ruled in 2020 that her allegations were true during a Fact Finding Judgement that found in favour of the Sheikh’s estranged wife Princess Haya, who fled Dubai with her two children to the UK.