Andy Murray Investment Turns Sour

Written by: Staff on 3rd September 2013

Andy Murray Investment Turns Sour |

Things are going well for Andy Murray and with his defense of the US Open title on course at the fourth round stage he has so far guaranteed himself $165,000 to take his 2013 earnings from prize money alone up to $5,091,386.

But events back across the Atlantic mean the world no.3 can soon find himself £500,000 ($774,000) out of pocket after what might turn out to be an ill-advised investment in an exclusive Surrey golf course.

Murray is one of a number of high profile investors into The Beaverbrook Golf Club, a lavish project that would turn Cherkley Court near Leatherhead, the Surrey stockbroker built home of the late press baron Lord Beaverbrook, into a hotel, spa, and golf course.

After a campaign by local residents and environmentalists, a High Court judge has overruled the planning permission initially granted to developers Longshot Ltd. by the Mole Valley District Council and thrown the plans into doubt.

Mole Valley District Council allowed the project last year against the advice of its planning officers and warnings from environmental experts that the local chalk downs landscape would be seriously damaged. Mr. Justice Haddon-Cave found the council’s decision to grant planning permission on such an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was perverse, and that the council had “erred in law”.

Longshot Ltd. started work illegally without planning permission and must now restore the course site to its original condition. The company would like to appeal but the judge denied them the opportunity. They could try another legal route but the cost, thought to be hundreds of thousands of pounds, will be added to legal costs and subsequent loss of income if the course is not built.

Murray’s representatives and financial advisors are deciding whether to make any comment but environmental law specialist Richard Buxton said: “It is particularly gratifying having the court so explicitly recognizing that what may be profitable for developers is not necessarily in the public interest.”

John Northcott, portfolio holder of planning at Mole Valley District Council, said: “We will now need to take time to consider what our next steps will be.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Andy Murray, British tennis news, English tennis news, Sports, Tennis News, US Open 2013

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10sBalls_com says:

September 3, 2013 at 4:54 pm

Andy Murray Investment Turns Sour – http://t.co/eSdVd4As0V #tennis @andy_murray @BritishTennis #AndyMurray @usopen