A LEADING planning consultant, speaking for environmental groups opposing Donald Trump's £1 billion golf resort plan, yesterday launched an astonishing personal attack on the American property tycoon.
In his closing submission to the Menie links inquiry in Aberdeen, David Tyldesley claimed the star of American television's The Apprentice was in danger of "being carried away by his dream" of building the world's greatest golf course on a protected
stretch of the Aberdeenshire coastline. Mr Tyldesley accused Mr Trump of making overstated claims about the potential of the resort at the Menie links and having "over ambitious" aspirations for the scheme when he gave evidence to the inquiry four weeks ago.
But last night, speaking to The Scotsman from New York, Mr Trump dismissed this, insisting: "What has happened is that they failed so badly in their case having to do with the environment that they now have to attack me personally. It's a shame that they can't try and stick with their arguments. But their arguments have been so badly beaten.
"I hired the best environmental consultants there are in the UK – the most respected. And their case was far stronger than the other people's case.
"So we won the environmental argument. We won the financial argument. We won the tourism argument. We won every argument, and probably the environment argument was won most conclusively. They know they can't win on that, so now they attack me personally, which isn't nice but it's par for the course. I get used to it."
Mr Trump also suggested that his plans may have had a role in Nicol Stephen's decision to stand down as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
He told The Scotsman: "I hear the head of the Lib Dem party resigned yesterday because of the fact that he opposed this so strongly and it's such a popular thing. I don't know – maybe that's true, maybe that's not."
He also insisted that the inquiry could not have gone any better for the Trump Organisation: "I think the other side has been totally discredited."
Earlier, Mr Tyldesley, who appeared for RSPB Scotland, the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Botanical Society of the British Isles, told the inquiry: "He appears to disregard, or deny, the prospect of disappointment or failure in much the same way as he disregarded or denied the harm to the natural environment the project would cause.
"Mr Trump was not originally driven by a compelling urge to build a golf course at the Menie estate, or even in Aberdeenshire, or even in Scotland. His search was across Europe and at one time even in Asia.
"He says that what attracted him to Menie was the drama of the dunes, but it is hard to appreciate his enthusiasm for this now. He bought the site without actually seeing them."
Mr Tyldesley also criticised the tycoon's "worrying lack" of appreciation of the damage the development would have on a protected site of special scientific interest (SSSI) – the shifting sand dunes at Menie.
Mr Tyldesley continued: "It is Mr Trump's personal aspiration to build the best golf course in the world and his personal conviction that the SSSI dunes are essential to do that. I submit that cannot be a matter of national importance sufficient to clearly outweigh the extensive, certain and permanent harm to the SSSI interest features."
A Liberal Democrat spokesman said Mr Trump was "absolutely and categorically" wrong on Nicol Stephen's resignation.
He said: "Nicol Stephen set out very clearly in his statement why he was resigning. It had nothing to do with this development."
The inquiry is expected to end today.
The full article contains 615 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
