Donald Trump’s golf plans on controversial course

To say Donald Trump’s golf course on the sand dunes of the Aberdeenshire coast divides opinion is an understatement. As one local joked “views have become so polarised, finding the objective truth has become as difficult as finding a golf ball among the hallowed dunes”.

As I found out when I spent two days on the Balmedie estate, where the American billionaire is building a £750m pound championship golf course. “The greatest golf course in the world,” he boasts.

But while local business groups are on his side, happy about the prospect of foreign golfers (most of them American) spending lots of cash in Aberdeen’s hotels and restaurants, there are two groups fighting Trump International all the way: local residents and environmentalists.

‘The worst planning decision in Scottish history’

Part of Donald Trump’s golf course is being built on the special slowly shifting sands of the Aberdeenshire coast. The wind has been sculpting the dunes for 4,000 years. Scotland declared them a site of special scientific interest.

They were supposed to be protected – to be left alone for birds like kittiwakes, guillemots, and little turns, and animals like bats and otters. Aberdeenshire council rejected the golf course plan for that very reason. But they were overruled by the Scottish government, which judged that the economic advantages were worth the environmental sacrifice.

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It was the “worst planning decision in Scottish history,” according to the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

Their expert Tom King told Channel 4 News that shoring up the sand dunes to build the golf course’s tees and fairways will kill the rare habitat: “If the dunes stop moving other plants will come in, soils will form and you will get trees growing.

“The whole nature of the habitat will be lost completely – it’ll be turned into something else.”

‘You’ve been Trumped’

One man has turned up the heat on Donald Trump’s golf course this week, with a documentary called ‘You’ve been Trumped’.

Anthony Baxter filmed people whose homes are surrounded by Donald Trump’s land. His film had its Scottish premiere this weekend.

One day he walked into the Trump estate office uninvited. Staff called Grampian police. Later, when he was no longer on Trump land, two officers arrested him for breach of the peace. He was charged, put in a cell and his camera was seized. The charges were eventually dropped.

But on the Trump estate – the executive vice president of Trump International Scotland, Sarah Malone, was unapologetic about getting the police involved and denied they had any special influence with Grampian police: “Anthony Baxter had been on our site a number of times and we had notified police about his conduct.

“He was deliberately obstructive in front of heavy machinery, he hid in bushes, and he snuck into corporate events uninvited. His behaviour on site was totally unacceptable.”

Anthony Baxter strongly refutes those claims: “The only Trump corporate event I attended was when Donald Trump visited the Menie Estate in May 2010. I was issued with a Press Pass.”

He denies ever “hiding in the bushes” or being “deliberately obstructive in front of heavy machinery”.

“I did enter the Menie Estate on a number of occasions to speak to residents as I am entitled to do. I notified police of my visits following my arrest in July 2010 – even though I am not obliged to do so.”

Refusing to budge

Michael Forbes has lived on his small farm for 40 years. Now he finds himself in the middle of the golf course. Mr Trump has called his farm a slum – and he wants it gone.

But Mr Forbes isn’t going to sell up because he believes the Trump project will fail.

Trump International asked Aberdeenshire council to take out compulsory purchase orders on Mr Forbes’ home, and those of his neighbours. Trump International says the action was a means of preserving our right to look at that option but it hadn’t made a formal application.

Instead, according to another resident, David Milne, Trump International tried to trick them into selling. A man came to their doors saying he wanted to buy a holiday home. He was actually a consultant for Mr Trump.

“We’ve had use of false names to buy the properties individually, we’ve had the offers submitted in legal form which are laughable and meaningless and we’ve had boundary disputes, trees being planted, earth banks around our homes.”

Trump International admitted a consultant had used his middle names when asking to buy the houses, but said there’d been no deceit in trying to add to Mr Trump’s property portfolio.

David Milne and the others say they’ve lost the dunes, but they won’t lose their homes. When the golf course opens next summer, they’re adamant not everything will be on Mr Trump’s terms.