The Menie dunes dilemma
July 2007
photo: Brian Morgan / Richard Le Sueur
by Gordon Casely
Why does Donald Trump’s idea to build a world-class golf centre at Menie raise such negativism? In love for my native land, I’m first at the head of the queue. As a lifetime cyclist and hillwalker in our countryside and wild land, I was a born environmentalist before the word was invented. And my antennae quiver in alarm at first sight of a plutocrat who jets in to Scotland to tell us what’s good for us.
So you’ll gather that possibly I could find Donald Trump quite hard to like – an opinion forged a decade ago below the giant artificial waterfall inside the triumphal tat that is Trump Tower in New York.
I also happen to believe that in rejecting Donald’s plan for an international golf resort we’d be throwing a substantial baby out with the bathwater.
Let me say right away that the Scottish Wildlife Trust, a body for whom I have some admiration, errs in my view in opposing the Trump plan on the grounds that the proposal would lead to an unacceptable level of impact. But it is right to flag up the fact that much valuable habitat will be irretrievably lost. And I doff my hat to the SWT in how it has ploughed through acres of analytic information, plans and something called an Environmental Statement.
The SWT also gets my vote for crediting the Trump organisation in presenting an environmental statement that is – to quote Paul Gallagher, national planning co-ordinator of the SWT – “extremely well detailed, honest and clear in its identification of the potential impacts on the local environment”. Paul goes on to voice his regret that the Trump environmental statement “is incomplete in parts due to the omission of certain surveys. These included some flora and fauna surveys and data for invertebrates”.
He also raises concerns about the proposed layout and location of the course, the impacts on the dynamic dune ecosystem and on a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest; and the SWT is frank enough to suggest that a way out might be to relocate the golf course away from dunes and the site. “Is this a form of mitigation or amendment that would be acceptable to the Trump Group?” he asks.
I happen not to be a golfer. Golfers and the game bore me stiff. But in the course of duty, I’ve attended Opens in Turnberry, Carnoustie and St Andrews, and Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh and Auckland, and I can tell you that being among world-class performers in any sport or interest is a life-enhancing experience.
I have not been to Wimbledon or a World Cup Final, but I expect the experiences there are the same. And the crowds these events draw put host venues on the global map. What the Dons’ feat in Gothenburg in 1982 did for Aberdeen across the world wasn’t just confined to sport. Business was electrified, and wanted to be part of city sporting success. So just imagine an Open being staged at Menie.
Golf at Menie has to form part of Scotland’s plan for when the oil runs out, a top-notch place where the world’s best want to come to compete, where the world’s top spenders come to dispose of their income. The site has the bonus of being closer to any city or international airport than any other in Scotland, and many in the UK. It’s absolutely in the right place for Dyce airport, and traffic flows to and from it won’t hinder the town.
I look around the city that is my home, and see a growing number of visionaries in business, higher education, the church and public life whose personal missions are to create a centre of excellence for this part of Scotland long after oil has gone – people such as Banchory-born hotelier Robert Cook, now presiding over two lifestyle hotel brands, Malmaison and Hotel du Vin, a man with a personal vision to create a legend behind the label.
A session with Cook represents a lesson in the power of self-belief. He exudes self-confidence without a trace of ego. He expects only the best as a matter of course. Conversation comes peppered with ceaseless repetition of the word ‘quality’: quality of hotel, quality of staff, quality of product, and quality for his customers, the number one target.
So far, visionaries like Cook don’t include anyone from sport. Menie presents a new and different possibility, and I haven’t yet mentioned tourism. The Trump Organisation makes Scotland an offer based soundly on business, and sentimentally on his having Scots blood on his mother’s side. If Scotland says no, then it’ll be the Caribbean or Spain who’ll undoubtedly waste little time in saying yes.
The environmental cost of Trump at Menie means irrevocable loss of dunes and sandhills that I’ve explored, walked through and run on since I was a boy. It’s a price in this case that I’m in no doubt we should pay.
It would be a desperately sad loss, but the impact of the potential loss of this golf development in financial, business, cultural and tourist opportunity is even greater. And just think of the negative message that such a loss would send out to the rest of the world…that Scotland isn’t a place that wants a world-class development for the 21st- and 22nd-centuries?
I hope not.
GORDON CASELY believes in the old motto Carpe Diem – Seize The Day – and does not think a day should be lost over seizing the proposals for Menie.
The argument in favour
by Donald Trump
I have been actively looking for links land in Europe for the past few years, and of course my preference was Scotland over any other country because I am half Scottish. My Mother, Mary MacLeod is from Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. She grew up in a simple croft until she landed in Manhattan at the age of 20 and her first language was Gaelic. Scotland is also the home of golf.
I want to do one course in Europe, and I want it to be this one. When I saw this piece of land I was overwhelmed by the imposing dunes and rugged Aberdeenshire coastline. I knew that this was the perfect site for Trump International, Scotland. I have never seen such an unspoilt and dramatic sea side landscape and the location makes it perfect for our development. Our site is close to two of the world’s most famous courses and is just 15 minutes by car from Aberdeen International Airport.
I do love playing golf. We built four of the best courses in the United States. You learn a lot about people by watching them play, and whether or not they can handle pressure. I wan to do one course in Europe and I want it to be the best course.
We were looking in Spain, looking in Ireland, in different locations all over Europe, but when it came to it, this was just the best piece of land.
It’s our aim to have a major championship there if we can. We’ll give them a course, the likes of which they have never seen and then it’s up to them. But we’ll give them something very special.
As this exciting development comes to fruition, the standards for the golf experience in Scotland will be taken to new levels of excellence.
The case against
by Paul F. Gallagher,
National Planning Co-ordinator for the Scottish Wildlife Trust
Land use and development has long been recognised as one of the key threats to wildlife in Scotland. SWT does not object to appropriately located development; however, the Trump proposal will be on a designated site and will have a detrimental affect on a sensitive and important ecology. Ironside Farrar, the consultants who produced the Environmental Statement (ES) identified the severe level of impact of developing the golf course in this location. The only way to overcome these impacts would be to relocate the golf course away from the dune system.
The ES is prepared by a specialist consultants and covers a huge range of subjects, from hydrology to geology. In the case of the Trump development, its ES is well detailed, honest and clear in its identification of the potential impacts on the environment. However it omits certain surveys, including some on flora and fauna and invertebrates.
The ES identified a number of issues, including the proposed layout/location of the course, the impacts on the dynamic dune ecosystem and on a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest. In our assessment the proposal would lead to an unacceptable level of impact.
Our conclusion is supported by the statement within the ES. “Ongoing deterioration of remaining dune habitat is likely to occur as part of the operation of the golf course and associated infrastructure.”
SWT submitted a new letter objection to the Trump golf on the 6 June 2007; we would encourage others to consider a response too. Do not miss out on your right to be involved in the planning process.
This is an article from the July 2007 edition of Leopard Magazine. To read much more like this every month, see our subscription details.