Almost a year-long wait for the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, for expanding his summer base for family at Highland, including several wives and 20 children, is likely to come to an end soon.
Next week, councillors will rule on the proposal and are expected to approve it, reports The Times. The 63,000-acre estate at Inverinate, a village in Wester Ross, already includes a 14-bedroom manor house and 16-bedroom guest house, but the sheikh wants to add a hunting lodge.
He has been battling for more than a year to secure planning permission and his blueprints have been revised four times.
Still, the neighbours are not happy. Roddy Macleod, 71, whose home is 65ft from the proposed lodge, said that it would invade his privacy and spoil the enjoyment of his home, in which he has lived for 35 years. People also say that an access road will cause problems.
Farningham Planning, the sheikh's agent, said that most of the land was bought from the Church of Scotland in 2017. Plans for Ptarmigan Lodge were originally submitted in March last year.
In July Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, his official wife, fled after her affair with a bodyguard was uncovered. She moved in to her £75 million home in west London with their two children, Jalila, now 12, and Zayed, seven. The couple have since divorced.
The sheikh's hopes of extending his Highland bolt-hole have attracted little support from locals. Nobody has written in support of his plan and like Mr Macleod there are many against it. One neighbour described it as "a land grab on the Trump scale". The sheikh's architects have reduced the size of the building and said that it would have six bedrooms rather than nine. They had said that the family's trips to Inverinate had been "limited by lack of accommodation", even though there are already 30 bedrooms there and another 28 were approved in February last year.
Transport Scotland had also expressed concern about the wear and tear to the local road, but his agent said that most people would come and go by helicopter.
In March it was reported that the Queen was to distance herself from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum after a court ruled that he had kidnapped two of his daughters. The Queen and the sheikh have been close for decades thanks to their love of horse racing but the relationship has been strained by a London court ruling that Sheikh Mohammed abducted his "wayward" daughters Shamsa and Latifa and had them taken back to Dubai. He was also said to have caused Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, then his wife, to fear for her life after her affair with a bodyguard was discovered. She fled last year to her £75 million home in west London with their two children, Jalila, now 12, and Zayed, seven. The couple have since divorced.
