DONALD Trump's plan to create the "world's greatest" golf course on a protected stretch of the Aberdeenshire coastline could prove disastrous for Scotland's global environmental reputation, the Menie inquiry was told yesterday.
Jonathan Hughes, head of policy for the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT), claimed the proposals for the £1 billion golf and housing resort on the Menie estate, near Balmedie, would send out a "dangerous" message that Scotland was prepared wantonly
to destroy its most precious natural assets.
"Allowing the development as proposed would be tantamount to killing the goose that laid the golden egg," he said.
He added: "Approving the destruction of Menie links contravenes almost every planning policy, environmental policy and government strategy in the national canon."
Mr Hughes, giving evidence at the start of the third week of the inquiry at the Aberdeen exhibition and conference centre, said central to the opposition of environmental organisations was the tycoon's plan to create part of his main championship golf course within the shifting sand dunes of the Menie links, part of the protected Foveran Links site of special scientific interest (SSSI).
In their "sheer scale and impressiveness", the dunes were the most extensive example of a mobile dune system anywhere in the UK and "one of the most superlative" examples of a dynamic sand dune system in north-western Europe, he said.
He told the inquiry: "The main purpose of the SSSI network – to defend nationally important sites against damaging developments and operations – would be severely compromised if these proposals were to be consented.
"A grant of planning permission would send negative signals about the ability of the planning system to protect the best of Scotland's natural heritage and the efficacy of national and local planning policy to safeguard nationally designated sites from damaging developments."
Mr Hughes claimed the plan would rob the site of its protected natural heritage status.
And he told the inquiry:
"The government's economic strategy recognises the value of Scotland's high-quality environments in attracting inward investments.
"This would send a dangerous message that Scotland wantonly disregards its most precious environmental assets and will happily set aside democratically agreed policy and legislation so long as the development comes with a big enough economic carrot.
"Sending this message would not only be bad for Scotland's global reputation and credibility regarding its commitment to sustainability, it could be potentially disastrous for the future of Scotland's natural environment and ultimately its economy, which depends on a healthy and well cared for environment."
The inquiry continues.
The full article contains 425 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
