Donald Trump has won another crucial victory in his bid to build the "world's greatest golf course" after planners approved his plans to expand the £1bn project onto land which is owned by his fiercest opponents.
The billionaire property developer has been allowed to exploit a quirk of Scottish planning law after Aberdeenshire council gave him outline permission to develop six plots of land he does not yet own, including the 25-acre property owned by Michael Forbes, his most famous critic.
The decision immediately provoked a furious row, with affected landowners promising to take legal action against the council to prevent it taking the next step – trying to seize their land using compulsory purchase powers.
The move brings Trump a step closer to eventually demolishing Forbes's home, which sits at the heart of his planned resort, next to a proposed golfing academy and the second hole of the main 18-hole championship course, and within sight of the proposed five-star hotel.
Forbes's land includes his mother's static caravan, old out-buildings and rusting tractors used for fishing off the nearby coast, but the salmon fisherman has repeatedly rejected Trump's offers, leading the tycoon to lambast Forbes and condemn his property as "a disgrace" two years ago.
Speaking from his home, Forbes said he was not surprised by the outcome of today's hearing and restated that he would not be selling his property.
"I hope it goes to compulsory purchase now, I want it to go to compulsory purchase because it will drag on for years.
"They won the public inquiry because they said they had enough land, they didn't need anyone else's land, so there should be another public inquiry.
"It's a vengeance thing now, it's become personal to Trump I think. He wants everybody who went against him all out, because he's a child."
Only two owners of the six plots of land affected – the council itself, and a driving school instructor who lives next to Forbes – are believed to want to sell.
Trump now has to persuade councillors to use their compulsory purchase orders to seize the other four plots, including Forbes's land and the house at Hermit Point owned by the anti-Trump campaigner David Milne. Many councillors are thought to be deeply unhappy at the proposal, which is expected to be debated by Aberdeenshire council next month.
Forbes was not at the hearing, but another affected resident, Susan Munro, 56, who has lived at Leyton Cottage for 28 years, said Trump had promised her that he did not need her land. "The last thing Mr Trump said to me was, 'Susan, I don't need your house, I don't need your land, I have plenty, we'll be good neighbours'.
"It's been my home for almost 30 years, but the council will just give in to Trump. It's our heritage, a protected bit of land, I think it's a disgrace we sold out to the Yanks."
Milne, who owns an old coastguard station close to Trump's proposed timeshare blocks, said he and his neighbours would challenge the decision in court.
"My home is not for sale, my intention at the end of the day is to leave there horizontally in a box. I can't make it any clearer than that," he said.
He said the Scottish government's decision last December to grant Trump permission for his resort "specifically excluded" his land and the other contested plots, and that Aberdeenshire planning department had been wrong to say that Trump did not need to provide environmental impact studies to support his new applications.
The developer's son, Donald Trump Jr, said he was "very happy at the decision" and that the family would try to reach a deal with the residents. Trump's consultants "have been tasked to develop and come up with the best masterplan possible and that entails these pieces of land. They are critical to the process," he said.
George Sorial, the Trump organisation's managing director of international development, said the organisation was in talks with the property owners "The discussions are ongoing, we are still talking to all the neighbours and that's a process. Irrespective of what happened today, that will be ongoing. If we can resolve this amicably and fairly, that's what we intend on doing."
The two men made an unexpected visit to Forbes's estate today. The pair arrived in casual clothes and driving a green farm buggy, but after an anxious wait at the door, they were chased off by Forbes who unleashed a torrent of abuse at them. Sorial said as they left: "This is what we have to deal with."
(Source: Guardian.co.uk)
