Billionaire Dubai prince slammed after installing 6ft-high ‘prison-style’ metal fence around his £75m Surrey estate without planning permission

ONE of the world’s richest men has asked furious neighbours if he can surround his £75m estate with a 6ft security fence - a month after putting it up.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum ordered guards to build the "prison" fence without planning permission in Longcross, Surrey.

The billionaire racehorse owner was accused of damaging the environment, while treating neighbours with contempt.

In an objection to the Sheikh's retrospective request, neighbour Tom Barr said: "Firstly, the applicant claims a 1.8m fence height - yet it is in fact 2.2315 m high by the applicant's own dimensioned drawing.

"The applicant has shown a cynical disregard and contempt for planning procedures.

"It is visually intrusive and, aside from mostly being powder coated green, more suited to a prison or a factory boundary, rather than the boundary of a SSSI.

It looks like a concentration camp

Neighbour

Another described the development as a "concentration camp" which wasn't "in keeping with the landscape".

It blocks vital 'corridors' of hedges and tree lines which endangered Dartford Warblers and other birds use.

Rare creatures like dormice also use these 'corridors' to travel across the countryside between Chobham Common and the previously-open estate, added the neighbour.

"It is highly puzzling that he did not apply for permission before all this came to light", the neighbour went on.

"The fences should be removed immediately to mitigate the damage to wildlife."

SHEIKH DIDN'T ASK PERMISSION

Prior to the construction of the fence, the estate's boundary was marked by lower, wooden fence posts or, in some places, no fence at all.

The ruler of Dubai's land is covered by an Article 4 Declaration, meaning even minor changes must receive permission from the council.

Security at the estate was already tight, with perimeter guards, CCTV and an inner security fence.

But in 2000 one of the Sheikh's daughters, Shiekha Shamsa al-Maktoum, then 19, escaped the estate on to Chobham Common.

One of her younger sisters, Sheikha Latifa, claimed in March 2018 that Sheikha Shamsa was being kept in a drugged state in the Zabeel Palace in Dubai and was 'like a zombie'.

Sheikha Latifa, 33, made the claim in a video that she sent to human rights organisation Detained in Dubai before saying she had attempted to 'escape' her father herself.

The bid, the subject of a BBC2 documentary aired on December 6th, was thwarted when the boat on which she was travelling was intercepted in the Indian Ocean by UAE and Indian naval vessels.