The go-ahead for Donald Trump's £1billion golf resort on the Aberdeenshire coastline, has been voted the Worst Planning Decision in the 2009 Scottish Carbuncles Awards.
The awards seek to “examine where planners, policy makers and architects have failed, so similar mistakes can be prevented in the future.”

Gordon Young, who edits the architecture magazine Prospect and architecturescotland.co.uk, the organisations behind the event said: “We fully appreciate the economic arguments of allowing this scheme to go ahead – and we note some good architects are now on board to ensure a reasonable standard of design.
“However, our built environment seems to be getting increasingly influenced by purely commercial thinking. Glasgow Harbour, Leith Docks – and now this beautiful stretch of coastline – have apparently all been surrendered by public bodies to hard-nosed developers; a trend which is having a negative effect on the built environment.

“What is the point of establishing planning principles and designating areas, like the location of Trump’s development, as a Site of Special Scientific Interest if the rules are simply ripped up every time somebody gets their cheque book out?”

Alex Salmond and co take note...

As I have said on a previous thread I was and am in favour of this golf course despite the fact that it will spoil a bit of the countryside. It will bring some employment and visitors to the North-East of Scotland which needs a boost. Hopefully the Golf Courses at Blairs and Stonehaven will also receive planning permission which will be great for golf. By the way I don't golf but I can see the advantages of these golf courses to the North-East and Scotland's economy. I think it overides the detriment to the section of coast north of Balmedie.

Good on Donald Trump investing some of his money in his mother's homeland and well done to the Scottish Government in giving the North-East a chance to prosper as oil declines.

How many luxury golf courses does Scotland need and how many of the jobs will go to local people? Indeed what is the unemployment rate in Aberdeenshire? Pretty low I suspect, compared with the national average. And how many of the luxury houses in Trumpton will become holiday homes? The point of this award is to show how easily politicians can disregard environmental designations -

“What is the point of establishing planning principles and designating areas, like the location of Trump’s development, as a Site of Special Scientific Interest if the rules are simply ripped up every time somebody gets their cheque book out?”

The whole sorry saga shows too clearly how land in this country is valued purely on economic grounds and not on aesthetic, philosophical or environmental grounds. Trump might have been better spending money "in his mother's homeland" on something useful, like helping re-invigorate some of those other areas than won Carbuncle Awards, like Glenrothes, New Cumnock or Motherwell, rather than rip up environmentally-protected wild land.

Cameron you have your views and I have mine, I am just trying to show that there are some of us who agree with the Golf Course despite the fact that I love the mountains and sea.

By the way the Scottish Goverment spends too much on the Central Belt as it is where all the votes are and not enough in the Highlands and North-East and I would presume the Borders are in the same situation. Look at the A9 and A96 for examples.

Hi Hillwalker.

Given that: "there are some of us who agree with the Golf Course despite the fact that I love the mountains and sea", can you offer an answer to the question:

“What is the point of establishing planning principles and designating areas ... a Site of Special Scientific Interest if the rules are simply ripped up every time somebody gets their cheque book out?”

In many ways the issue here, as this award suggests, isn't about a golf course or luxury housing development but about the frailties of a planning system that allows the chair of the Aberdeenshire Council Infrastructure Committee to be sacked because his casting vote went against Trump's development plans and the interference of a local MP who also happened to be Scotland's First Minister. Would this have gone to a public inquiry if the local MP had been a run-of-the-mill back bencher? And why were environmental designations (the area is an SSSI) completely ignored? What value these designations now? What value our National Parks? If you love the mountains and the sea don't you care about these things? :)

Sadly it seems you can ride roughshod over a planning system when the SNP economists, Salmond and Swinney, are in charge.

I'm an environmental planning consultant and many within our industry are asking: what is the point of having a planning system in the first place? Do we not have any integrity and conscience about what we do with land we have inherited from our forebears?

Or do we just do what we do when we feel like it when we see some cash? I'm really saddened by the way Scotland uses its natural capital - instead of being put to use and conserved for the benefit of Scotland's people it's being sold off.

Good post Iain, I couldn't agree more. Historically it would appear that those who govern us are happy to sell off our best attributes for foreign gold. Sic a parcel o' rogues in a nation... I guess some things never change.

I'm glad you said it Cameron. Unfortunately, to an outsider, Scotland has been a planning disaster. Look at Fort William. Hopefully one good outcome of the credit crisis will be a halt to the appalling new build houses popping up all over the place in Scotland.

It seems old habits die hard.

John

I too will be very interested in how many of the hotels jobs will go to: Headhunted outsiders; Seasonal Aussies or other long haul travellers; Agency workers ensuring cheaper European migrant workers; and general low paid transients from nowhere near the Aberdeenshire area.
I even doubt if the building, construction and landscaping work will involve many local workers. Being a planned resort I also doubt that local shops or businesses will benefit much from residents or visitors to the resort. I've seen the non effect that these resorts have on local population before when I took an all inclusive holiday from Canada to the Dominican Republic, and I won't restrict myself and alienate myself from the local population ever again.

Nothing against a fair balance of local and outside workers, but it seems the balance nowaday's is totally against local workforce.