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Who’d be a billionaire?

While he tries to overcome reported funding obstacles to building America’s second tallest tower in Chicago, Donald Trump also has a small bugbear in the ‘golfopolis’ he’s planning on the Aberdeenshire coast in Scotland.

As I wrote three weeks ago, Trump has now secured permission for the huge project that includes two golf courses, a luxury hotel and exclusive apartments.

But slap bang in the middle of the development sits the 23 acres of Michael Forbes, whose family have run a farm there for generations. Forbes, 55, says he’s staying where he is and has rejected all overtures from the billionaire property developer to give up his land. Those overtures, by the way, came with a latest reported offer of £375,000 ($560,000).

Mr Forbes has already gained something of a reputation in the US, being variously described as ‘some old farmer in a kilt’ and ‘a force of nature.’

The tale has distinct echoes of the award-winning 1983 film Local Hero in which an oil company executive tries to buy up an entire Scottish village for a refinery and finds the way blocked by Ben Knox, an old beachcomber with property rights to part of the coast.

Somehow I think Mr Forbes might end up being Trumped, but watch this space …

by Andy Moreton

Donald Trump, the New York-based billionaire, has won his battle to be allowed to build an exclusive £1 billion ($1.58 billion) golf resort on an area of outstanding beauty on the Aberdeenshire coast in Scotland.

The local planning committee originally turned down the scheme, but the Scottish government, led by the Scottish National Party (SNP), has now overturned that decision.

The First Minister, Alex Salmond of the SNP, said the project would create 6,000 jobs – including 1,400 permanent positions. “In tough economic times, substantial investment of this kind is at a premium,” he said.

Detailed proposals will be drawn up over the next few months for what’s been dubbed a ‘golfopolis’ featuring two championship courses, 500 exclusive homes, 950 holiday apartments and a 450-bedroom ‘modern gothic’ hotel.

Environmentalists, who fought against the development, are dismayed. Part of the course will be on an area of shifting sand dunes which have been declared a site of Special Scientific Interest under European Union habitat regulations.

The planning inspectors ruled that the damage to the dunes would be outweighed by the resort’s substantial value to the economy - a judgment challenged by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), among others.

“It appears that the desires of one high profile overseas developer - who refused to compromise one inch - have been allowed to override the legal protection of this important site,” said Aedan Smith, head of planning for RSPB Scotland.

The development will, however, be subject to a series of environmental checks and controls to ensure that remaining plant species and wildlife are fully protected.

Trump said he was honoured and promised the scheme would be ‘a tremendous asset and source of pride over many generations for both Aberdeenshire and Scotland.’

by Andy Moreton

If you’re thinking of visiting this part of Scotland, check out the Marcliffe At Pitfodels, a five-star luxury hotel and spa set in 11 acres of woodland and with a bar boasting more than 100 malt whiskies.