Trump fails to follow through on resort

Donald Trump in typically bullish mood Alex Brandon/AP

Mike Wade

June 18 2011 12:01AM

Less than three years after Donald Trump was granted planning permission for the creation of a luxury golf resort on an unspoilt stretch of Aberdeenshire coast, serious doubts have been raised about the scale of the billionaire’s grand design and whether it can be delivered on time.

In November 2008, when the Scottish Government approved the plan, Mr Trump and Alex Salmond, the First Minister, spoke glowingly about a venture that would give the economy an unprecedented lift at a time of gloom. Mr Salmond talked of 6,000 jobs, 1,400 of which would be based in the community. The project was presented as an economic godsend.

Since those heady days, the relatively small scale of activity around Mr Trump’s Menie estate has dumbfounded his critics and bewildered some of his local supporters. While work is under way on the championship course, where an Irish contractor has been appointed, all other parts of the project are, apparently, in abeyance.

Mr Trump’s vision is grand. A scheme he once priced at £1 billion was planned to comprise two golf courses, 950 holiday homes, 36 golf villas, up to 500 homes, a 450-room luxury hotel, a conference centre and a clubhouse.

Yet, 31 months after he won planning approval, the value of his scheme has apparently diminished to “well over £750 million”, in his own words. Few, if any, of his buildings are on site.

His opponents point out that this is not what was expected. In November 2006, at the start of the local planning procedure, a statement submitted by Trump International Golf Links envisaged a two-year period between receipt of planning approval and the completion of the first golf course, its clubhouse and a maintenance facility. It went on to predict that construction would commence on the remainder of the resort within six months of outline planning approval.

Yet, as the scheme moves towards reality, these elements, representing the bulk of the original project, have still to move beyond outline planning permission.

Sarah Malone, for Trump International Golf Links, said she “absolutely refuted” any suggestion that the resort was behind schedule or that it would not be completed in full. It had always been planned as a long-term staged development and it had been necessary to revise the masterplan for the development following outline planning consent, she said.

She also defended the promise of local jobs. Sol, the specialist Irish contractor, was employed because there was no equivalent in Scotland. All other professional consultants were local and national companies, and a raft of businesses, from “employment agencies, to project management, to the sourcing of tarmac and stone were all local people”.

But, critics say, even good news, when it comes from Mr Trump, seems tempered. Although work is continuing on one of the two golf courses, and its fairways and greens will be playable next summer, the clubhouse will not have been built by then.

Despite an expectation that detail plans for this luxurious 25,000 sq ft (7,620 sq m)facility would be submitted by the end of last year, the design of the building, its car park and its access remain shrouded in mystery and no application has been lodged with Aberdeenshire Council. Similarly, work on an essential maintenance facility has not begun, despite planning assent.

Local critics of the scheme, including residents and green campaigners, have been joined by academic voices. “I always thought Alex Salmond was one of the canniest politicians in Britain,” said Paul Cheshire, professor emeritus of economic geography at the London School of Economics. “He is an economist by background and the economic patter is pretty transparent. He should have known better.”

Professor Cheshire’s economic analysis suggested “maybe 40 per cent” of the project would be built, representing the more profitable housing elements of the scheme. He challenged Mr Salmond’s notion that the resort would provide a huge boost to employment around Aberdeen. “It will be much closer to zero than 6,000 local jobs,” he said.

A spokesman for Mr Salmond, who is the local MSP, retorted that these claims were simply untrue, and went on to underline the level of local support for both the SNP leader and the Trump resort.

“The golf course development is proceeding extremely well,” he said. “The reality is that the people have spoken and there is no doubting local opinion — as a supporter of the Trump development Mr Salmond secured the largest vote, the largest majority and the largest percentage increase of any MSP in Scotland last month, with two thirds of the vote.”

Until now, questions over planning and timetable have so far gone largely unremarked in public by local and national politicians, and by the local media. Mr Trump’s battles with local residents have made headlines.

For a year the threat of compulsory purchase hung over a handful of residents, Michael Forbes, David Milne and Susan Munro and their families. Mr Trump accused Mr Forbes of “living like a pig” and built a huge mud rampart around Mr Milne’s property.

In respectable Aberdeenshire, still as stolid a presbyterian community as you can find in Scotland, these actions have not played well, and some who once supported the project have had second thoughts.

Last night the Belmont Picturehouse in Aberdeen staged the Scottish premiere of You’ve Been Trumped, an award-winning documentary, which fiercely attacks Mr Trump and his development.

The film has already made headlines across North America after it stormed the Canadian International Documentary Festival last month. It was even said to have ended his dream of becoming US President.

Mr Trump’s critics in Scotland can expect to be on the receiving end of a counterblast any day now.