A High Court battle has been started by the wife of tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed to prevent a large crematorium from being built half a mile from their Surrey estate.
Heini Wathen-Fayed, 67, is suing over plans to build a massive funerary site on green belt land near their £4.6 million manor house in Oxted in the 17th century.
The protest against the measures is being led by the former model, who has been married to the ex-Harrods president for 35 years.
Horizon Cremation Ltd requested for permission to construct the new cremation, which would include a 120-seat ceremony hall, a memorial space, a garden of remembrance, and parking.
Mr Al-Fayed, 93, has held Barrow Green Court, a Grade I listed palace, since the 1970s, and the pair previously battled in court in 2010 over oil rights beneath his estate.
Mrs Wathen-Fayed is currently spearheading a High Court appeal aimed at overturning a government planning inspector’s approval of the crematorium project in September 2021.
It was allowed due to a compelling local need, with the closest cremation facility located 11 miles away in Crawley.
Mrs Wathen-Fayed is the mother of four of former Fulham FC owner Mohamed Al-children, Fayed’s and the pair has a collection of luxurious mansions valued over £1.2 billion.
Dodi Al-Fayed was born to Mr. Al-first Fayed’s wife, Samira Khashoggi, and died in a vehicle accident with Princess Diana in 1997.
Mrs Wathen-Fayed claims she is contesting the lawsuit to protect the local ecosystem and preserve the ‘calm’ 12-acre site from development.
Horizon Cremation Ltd applied for planning approval with Tandridge District Council for the first time in 2020, but it was initially denied.
However, the funeral home owners appealed the judgment to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, who overruled the council in September 2021.
Mrs Wathen-Fayed, local protestors, and the Oxted and Limpsfield Residents’ Group are suing the government in the High Court of London in an attempt to stop the proposal.
Outside of last week’s court hearing, Horizon’s director, Stephen Byfield, estimated that the funeral home had already spent roughly £500,000 fighting to get the incinerator approved.
Objectors argue that the proposal should not be built on fields abutting the A25 and Barrow Green Road because they should be protected from all development.
The land is in the protected green belt and on the verge of a ‘area of outstanding beauty’ with spectacular vistas over the Surrey hills, according to lawyers for Ms Wathen-Fayed and the other activists.
They also claim the government disregarded advice concerning potential flood concerns and if a different location would be more appropriate.
‘We moved there because of the green belt, and local folks want to preserve it that way,’ Mrs Wathen-Fayed said after the hearing last week.
‘It’s a serene and natural setting, and we’d want to see more land maintained.’
She went on to say that preserving the area free of construction will help to reduce the risk of local floods, noting that “we all know how the rainfall has increased here.”
However, Jonathan Price, the planning inspector who approved the project, argued it would only cause’moderate harm’ to the area’s rural character.
Due to rising local demand, he concluded that an exemption should be granted for the new crematorium, with all current funeral homes in Tandrige operating ‘above their realistic capacity.’
Mr Price went on to say that cremation is now used in 80 percent of national fatalities, with a definite growing trend in this funeral practice.
Judge Timothy Mould QC has now reserved his decision on the matter, which will be announced at a later date.