A decision by Councillors to allow another Trump golf course in Aberdeenshire has caused local outrage, with protestors arguing that it could endanger the natural habitat and prevent access to the beach.
A decision by Councillors to allow another Trump golf course in Aberdeenshire has caused local outrage, with protestors arguing that it could endanger the natural habitat and prevent access to the beach.
The new Macleod course is to have 18-holes and be built South-West of the original Menie site.
Conservationists declare that a new development could destroy the area’s already delicate environment, whilst local campaigners state that no proper consultation has occurred.
Both groups have urged Aberdeenshire Council to overturn its Friday decision to recommend the plan. Meanwhile, the Policy Director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, Bob Ward, said, “This decision gives a green light to the Trump organisation to further vandalise and destroy Scotland’s natural heritage”.
Union’s have also called out Trump’s “rank hypocrisy” as his Turnberry course recently laid off staff and made reductions to pay under the guise of Covid-19.
Trump has remarked he might leave the U.S if he is forced to vacate the White House. This further heightens fears that he will take a more active role in the North East; which could happen as his Democratic rival remains the favourite to win the U.S election in November 2020.
The President’s ventures in Grampian began in 2012 and since then his presence has become synonymous with nightmare neighbours and lengthy legal disputes.
To many, the promise of 6000 jobs and a “second coming of oil” never materialised. Moreover, the Menie resort’s treatment of local residents caused national outrage when it was exposed in the BBC Scotland documentary, “You’ve Been Trumped”.
In 2015, the UK Supreme Court ruled against the property mogul when he took the Scottish Government to court over the construction of an 11-turbine wind farm near the Menie estate.
Welcoming attitudes to developments by the current leader of the free world have soured in recent years. Former First Minister, Alex Salmond, once supported Mr Trump’s investments until the two parted ten-years-ago.
The pair engaged in a very public spat when Mr Salmond referred to Trump as “three time loser”, while the then-Republican front-runner hit back by calling the former SNP leader a “has-been”.
With the Scottish government less receptive to Trump, and public mood wildly against him, he is set to face a most hostile welcome upon his return to property development.