A US billionaire’s dream of creating a grand English country estate in the tradition of 18th Century landscape designer Capability Brown is facing a backlash from neighbours convinced he is tapping into their water supply.
American financier Stephen Schwarzman bought the magnificent Conholt Park in Wiltshire – described as one of the finest shooting estates in southern England – for £82million three years ago.
He has funnelled millions of pounds into transforming the 2,100-acre estate’s parkland by building a huge lake that will hold more than nine million gallons of water.
But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Mr Schwarzman, dubbed the most powerful man on Wall Street, is under fire from neighbours who believe he is using a borehole to extract groundwater to fill the lake.
This, they allege, could lead to water shortages at their own properties because they rely on a shared aquifer.
There is also anger at plans to ‘enhance’ the estate’s pheasant shoots, with local sources claiming Mr Schwarzman is preparing for up to 500 birds to be shot a day.
‘I don’t like what he is doing,’ one local shooting enthusiast told the MoS. ‘That’s not sport.’
Last night a spokesman for Mr Schwarzman, 78, the boss of Blackstone, one of the world’s largest private-equity funds, denied the lake is being filled by a borehole and said the estate was instead using a ‘highly sophisticated water collection system’ that carries rainfall into the lake.
Hellbound and Down 