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Ex-Mclaren boss Ron Dennis gets nod for subterranean super-garage for cars

Multimillionaire former boss of the McLaren Formula One racing team, Ron Dennis, has been given planning approval to build a 230-feet-long garage in the basement of his mansion in Surrey, England.

Ron Dennis at the 2000 Monaco Grand Prix (Tristram Biggs/CC BY 2.0)

The excavated facility, which had been opposed by a neighbour, will be accessed by a ramp and will have a revolving turntable to accommodate his fleet of seven luxury cars.

Planners at the local council first rejected Dennis’ application seven years ago, but an appeal was upheld by a central government planning inspector who termed the plan an "engineering operation", reports The Mail Online. 

Local planners have now renewed the three-year approval that was granted as a result in 2013, and again in 2016, which Dennis did not use.

"I love my McLarens. I’ve got parking for seven cars down there…that’s hardly monstrous," Dennis told the Mail.

He added: "It’s a subterranean facility for my daily cars and two or three of my sports cars." 

On the size of the undergound garage, he said: "It is no bigger than other subterranean areas on the estate. The turntable is just to permit a more efficient use of space."

"Crickey…I am a pretty wealthy guy. I used to be a significant shareholder in McLaren. So why wouldn’t I have some exotic cars?"

Set on 11 acres, the mansion already has an underground swimming pool, cinema, bar and other amenities, according to the Mail.

The neighbour who opposed the plan said the project would add traffic on a narrow road with a dangerous blind bend, and would "increase noise and disturbance", reported the Mail.

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Comments

  1. Why is there always some busy body that objects to people who are trying to improve, build or change something that they want. In most cases when these people are asked about their reasons for making someone’s life a misery their objections are so petty and pathetic it beggars belief. If you want to build a wall at the front of your house and your road is used by Ramblers, forget it. As soon as you put up your orange planning application you will get more complaints than British Rail. I wish these people would get a life.

  2. It would appear the neighbour contesting the residential garage ( for a logical seven private cars ) has not visited McLaren in Woking, to see the incredibly environmentally facility that Mr. Dennis had created there.

  3. Its not as if Dennis is going to be doing burnouts in his exotics cars or being a nuisance in the neighbourhood. I would have thought it would be a great asset to the neighbourhood that Dennis choose to live there after all he can afford to live anywhere.

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