Work will start on Donald Trump’s controversial Aberdeenshire golf course today. Last Tuesday Councillors gave the go-ahead to one stage of the planned £1 billion resort and work is expected to begin on the golf course and associated developments such as a driving range, today. The golf course and plans for a hotel and hundreds of houses within a gated community will be built partly on land designated as a SSSI at Menie, just north of Aberdeen. The plans already have outline planning permission following a public inquiry, but Councillors are due to make the final decision on the rest of the development at a later date. The dunes at Menie were given the legal protection of SSSI status because of their important conservation value as a rare habitat.
Donald Trump predicted last month that the ribbon on his golf resort would be cut within 18 months. Even if full planning permission is granted for the rest of the development, Trump will have to contend with an opposition campaign which has seen small parcels of land, within the development area, sold to scores of people including mountaineer Cameron McNeish and Adam Watson, the ecologist and Cairngorms expert. The hope is that large numbers of private owners will make it difficult for the Council to agree to compulsory purchase orders.