A multi-millionaire businessman has been ordered to axe the luxury hotel where the UK Prime Minister signed his Brexit deal.
Last week Surinder Arora was told to demolish all or part of Fairmount Windsor Park hotel where the Northern Ireland Brexit deal was agreed.
Known as the Windsor framework, the deal was made in an attempt to address and solve many months of wrangling over trade and border arrangements for Northern Ireland.
Issued by Runnymede borough council, a planning enforcement notice said Surinder Arora’s hotel company had until 7th October to act.
According to the notice, this either involves ‘making the unauthorised building comply with the terms of the planning permission’ or else the company would need to ‘demolish the building in its entirety and remove all resultant waste and material from the land’.
A conservative party donor, known as Arora, has stated errors were made during extension work to the hotel, but claimed this was down to complex construction rules that were enforced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a statement to the Times, which first reported the enforcement notice, Arora said: ‘We are truly sorry for the mistakes made during the construction of the Fairmount Windsor Park. It was a highly challenging construction site being developed in the middles of the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘We are now constructively engaging with Runnymede council and other local stakeholders to find mutually acceptable solutions to the planning concerns which have been raised. The hotel is a fantastic property. We want to ensure it continues serving the local area and bringing significant economic benefits to Runnymede.
‘We remain extremely proud of it but also accept the need to remedy our mistakes.’