Scotland officials approve building plans for another Trump golf course

Scotland officials have approved plans by President Donald Trump‘s family business to build a another golf course in Aberdeenshire.

Plans for the new 18-hole golf course were approved by Aberdeenshire council on Friday, despite local objections. Friday’s decision is expected to be final. Local district officials had already approved the plan for the second course in September. 

The Aberdeen council said the development is subject to some conditions such as measures to minimize the flooding risk at the site. 

The course will be named MacLeod after Trump’s mother, Mary Anne MacLeod. It will be built next to the original Trump International golf resort on his Menie Estate, north of Aberdeen, which opened in 2012. 

Scotland officials have approved plans by President Donald Trump’s family business to build a second golf course in Aberdeenshire. Trump is seen playing a round of golf at his other Scotland course in Turnberry in July 2018

The area of land had already been marked in the local development plan for two 18-hole golf courses, a 450-room resort hotel with conference center and a spa.

It will also include 36 ‘golf villas’, 950 holiday apartments in four blocks and up to 500 houses and community facilities.

The course will share the golf house and related facilities currently serving the Menie course and will provide an additional 141 parking spaces.

Environmentalists have criticized the first Menie golf course for partially destroying the coastal sand dunes in the area, and say the second course could cause the dunes to further erode.  

‘The council sided with Trump International,’ said Bob Ward with the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. 

‘They accepted the economic case over the environmental case,’ Ward added.

The Scottish Environment Protective Agency has also objected to the application, saying the water management plan was inadequate and the environmental management plan was not appropriate. 

Environmentalists have criticized the first Menie golf course for partially destroying the coastal sand dunes in the area, and say the second course could cause the dunes to further erode. Trump is seen playing golf in Turnberry in July 2018 

Many locals have also objected to the application, citing loss of public space and the impact it would have on water supply, private roads and nearby estates. This image shows Trump’s golf course in Aberdeen, the same city where the new course will be built

Many locals have also objected to the application, citing loss of public space and the impact it would have on water supply, private roads and nearby estates.

Sam Lowit, Morningside Avenue, Aberdeen, said: ‘It is clear that the existing underperforming development is not of benefit to this area, with low attendance figures and ongoing financial losses.

‘There is therefore no valid reason to extend or increase this situation and refusal of this application is the only viable route for the local authority to take in this case.’

The existing golf course and luxury hotel at the estate have not been profitable since they opened. 

Trump also owns another luxury golf resort, Turnberry, on the other side of Scotland.