Donald Trump is facing unprecedented criticism from Aberdeenshire Council for repeatedly breaching planning rules at his controversial golf resort.
The US tycoon, who visited Scotland earlier this month, has applied for planning permission five times in the last 18 months for construction work already carried out. He is being asked to submit a sixth request for retrospective permission.
The applications for Menie Estate on the Aberdeenshire coast include a 141-space car park, a temporary clubhouse, two guesthouses with 21 bedrooms, offices, an elaborate fountain, two illuminated signs and a large earthen embankment.
Though five have been approved the sixth remains outstanding and now the council has decided for the first time to express concern about Trump's behaviour. Since his £750-million resort was originally given planning permission in November 2008, Aberdeenshire Council has been an unswerving supporter of Trump's golfing developments.
But a recent meeting of the council's Formartine Area Committee agreed without opposition to write to the Trump Organisation to express "dissatisfaction with the number of retrospective planning applications". Eleven councillors sit on the committee: five Nationalists, two Tories, two LibDems and two independents.
"It is highly unusual for a developer to so obviously ignore planning legislation time and time again with serial breaches requiring action," said the committee's vice-chair, independent councillor Paul Johnston.
Johnston opposed Trump's latest retrospective application for a car park, associated lighting and large embankment, arguing that the impact on local resident, Susan Munro, and her family was "unacceptable". But the majority of the committee agreed permission could be granted as long as the lighting was reduced and embankment lowered.
Munro, who has lived at Menie for 30 years, said when it rained there was now nowhere for the water to go and her house was in danger of being flooded. "We're just imprisoned now," she told the Sunday Herald. "Trump is so arrogant he thinks that with all his money and power he can do what he likes, and the council just seem to kow-tow to him."
Sue Edwards, a local anti-Trump campaigner, accused the tycoon of using "bullying and intimidation".
Aberdeenshire Council confirmed Trump had made five retrospective applications to remedy "breaches of planning control", and was being asked to make a sixth. The Formartine Area Committee agreed on May 21 to write and complain about them, but the letter had not yet been sent.
The committee's chairman, SNP councillor Rob Merson, met Trump and his son in the golf club on June 7, with council area manager, Keith Newton. "The conversation focused on the issue of retrospective planning applications and the requirement to adhere to due process," Merson said.
George Sorial, the Trump Organisation's executive vice-president, said: "We have never built without permission and enjoy a strong working relationship with the council's planning department. Claims to the contrary are simply inaccurate, made by people who are ignorant of the facts and do not understand the relevant law."
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