DRESSED in anoraks of various hues and with rucksacks on their backs, they looked like a group of ramblers out for a stroll and admiring some of the most spectacular scenery in Scotland.
But yesterday the supporters and opponents of Donald Trump's £1 billion plan to transform the Menie Links into his dream golf resort found themselves tramping together over the environmentally hallowed ground at the centre of the four-week long publi
c local inquiry.
Led by James McCulloch, the Scottish Government's chief reporter and director for planning and environmental appeals, the 40-strong group made a brief stop at the hilltop site on the Aberdeenshire coast where the tycoon plans to build his 450-bedroom luxury hotel.
The party then made its way on to the stretch of protected land at the heart of the disputed planning application – the shifting sand dunes on the site of special scientific interest (SSSI) where the back nine holes of the main championship course would be sited.
Overhead, the sound of skylarks and lapwings filled the air. And with no summer haar in sight the view was, by any measure, stunning.
The Trump organisation had positioned poles amidst the rolling dunes to show where the tees, landing areas and greens would be sited.
Neil Hobday, the project director, led the way down the route of the proposed tenth hole – a long and testing par five which he said could be the "most spectacular in golf".
It stretched along the valley in the shadow of the dunes and past two small rush-filled pools to a raised green among some small dunes, topped by maram grass. Anyone who has played golf could immediately see that he had a point.
The other holes in the back nine took the party even further into a landscape more akin to the Sahara desert than Aberdeenshire. And every potential hole, without doubt, a golfer's dream
Martin Ford, the Aberdeenshire councillor who was sacked as chairman of the local authority's planning committee for using his casting vote to reject the Trump application last November, described it as "a magical place".
Mr Ford and his fellow opponents in RSPB Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Wildlife Trust want the area to remain untouched – a stretch of coastline which environmentalists claim is "unparalleled" in its ecological importance as a mobile sand dune system.
Peter Gordon, the conservation planning officer for RSPB Scotland, was still hoping for a victory for the environmental lobby.
He said: "We have done as best we can. But this is an unusual case since it is a straightforward challenge to the planning system.
"Inevitably, people will question whether, at the end of the day, it will be a political rather than a planning decision and how much weight ministers want to attach to the defence of the planning system."
Meanwhile, George Sorial, Donald Trump's right-hand man in Scotland, was upbeat about the future.
He said: "We presented a strong case. Our economic and financial cases virtually went unchallenged and we did a tremendous job emphasising the positive environmental efforts we will make in mitigation and increasing biodiversity."
He claimed the evidence presented by environmental witnesses, called by the Trump organisation, had gone a long way to "demystifying a lot of the nonsense" put forward by some of the development's opponents.
Mr Sorial added: "I think everyone – even the objecting groups – would agree we've all had a chance to put our opinions forward and they have been debated robustly. But I am very happy and feel that very little has hurt us in this. I think we have steamrolled the opposition."
The inquiry continues tomorrow.
TIMELINE28 APRIL, 2006: Donald Trump flies in to Aberdeen to announce plans to construct the "world's greatest" golf course at the Menie Estate, near Balmedie in Aberdeenshire.
20 NOVEMBER, 2007: The Trump application is thrown out by Aberdeenshire Council's planning authority on the casting vote of its chairman, Martin Ford.
4 DECEMBER, 2007: The Scottish Government calls in the application after Donald Trump announces he will not appeal the council decision.
12 DECEMBER, 2007: Mr Ford is removed from his post following a vote of no confidence at a full meeting of Aberdeenshire Council.
10 MARCH, 2008: Scottish Government announces a public local inquiry will begin in June at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference centre.
10 JUNE, 2008: The inquiry gets under way. Mr Trump is called as the first witness.
The full article contains 746 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
