Trump planning second golf course

Nov 19 2012

Donald Trump has started planning a second golf course on his Aberdeenshire estate despite calls for a public inquiry into all official dealings between the billionaire and Scottish authorities.

The US tycoon opened Trump International Golf Links on the Menie Estate in July, seven years after plans were first revealed.

Mr Trump has clashed with local residents, environmentalists, wind farm manufacturers and politicians since buying the land, but he said the battle had been worth it when he struck the first ball on the course.

Initial plans for a hotel and houses on the estate have been put on hold until a decision is made on a proposed wind farm off the coast of the links, but architect Martin Hawtree has been commissioned to design a second course on the estate.

Dr Hawtree said: "If there is one word which expresses the experience of players here as well as my own experience as an architect working here, it is 'privilege'. Now that privilege is to be extended further still for architect and player alike in the development of the planned second course.

"The second course will contrast boldly with its high-flying neighbour by exploring in relaxed manner the beauties of the land behind the dunes: the sea of heather-clad undulations, the several isolated small lochs, the network of burns, the higher ground behind this land that provides fine views of the whole links.

"Not to be outdone, the second course also rises up into the dunes at the southern end and nods in acquaintance to the 4th and 5th holes of the first course."

The development of a second courses comes weeks after one of Mr Trump's opponents called for a full public inquiry into all official dealings between the billionaire and Scottish authorities.

David Milne, who was threatened with eviction from his home to make way for the tycoon's golf and housing development, wants the investigation to cover central and local government.

The inquiry would date back to 2005, shortly before the plan to build on an environmentally sensitive area of dunes on the north-east coast was revealed.