Tennis player Andy Murray has reportedly invested in plans to turn a historic estate into a luxury hotel and exclusive golf course.
Campaigners and developers alike are waiting to see if a High Court judge decides to quash permission for plans to develop Cherkley Court, the former home of press magnate Lord Beaverbrook.
Founder investors are believed to include the tennis star and founder members include Michael Sherwood, a top city banker at Goldman Sachs, and Rob Rankin, a senior executive at Deutsche Bank, the Sunday Times reported this week.
Cherkley Campaign secured the judicial review over Mole Valley Council's approval of plans for a ‘world class’ hotel, private members’ golf course and spa.
Campaigners, who argue the decision was a mistake, believe the plans will wreck the estate's precious landscape and see another golf course in the area as ‘unnecessary’.
Someone called Andrew Murray had 500,000 partner shares in Longshot Cherkley Court Ltd in December, according to accounts filed at Companies House.
An Andrew Murray also had three ordinary shares in Beaverbrook Golf Club Ltd in January, accounts showed.
Nick Kilby, Longshot spokesman, declined to comment on the Sunday Times article but said advertising executive Sir Frank Lowe was enjoying his involvement in the project.
But he said the article contrasting Cherkley Court and the renowned Queenwood golf club, showed "expectations are high."
Accounts filed with Companies House also revealed a Maxwell Beaverbrook held four ordinary shares in the golf club in January.
William Maxwell Aitken, the first Lord Beaverbrook, was a wartime minister and press baron who bought the property after a single viewing in 1911.
His grandson Maxwell Aitken is the third Lord Beaverbrook.
A Cherkley Campaign spokesman said they took the planning decision to judicial review because otherwise it would set a 'dangerous precedent' for rural landscapes across the country.
He said: "Cherkley Estate represents an exceptional tract of accessible countryside adjacent to the National Trust's Box Hill Estate on the North Downs, a landscape that requires conservation not exploitation.
"It is interesting to note that Lord Beaverbrook, chairman of the Beaverbrook Foundation that sold Cherkley Court for over £20 million to Longshot Cherkley Court Ltd, has a shareholding in the Beaverbrook Golf Club."
Work on the estate this year
In January Ollie Vigors, a director at Longshot Cherkley Court and business partner to Joel Cadbury who is great-grandson of the chocolate company founder, said they had gone out of their way to protect the environment.
He said: "We want to conserve, enhance and preserve Cherkley Court to create a jewel in the crown of Mole Valley."
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