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Donald Trump got turned down!!!!!!!!!

From Today's Scotsman.

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1914902007

Seems Trump is an environmentalist now. :rolleyes:


As for the windfarm McGuffin, there were some very significant differences between Clashindarroch & Menie. Particularly that, from the outset, AMEC were more than willing to cooperate & consult with SNH over the scheme & how they would go about it, which was largely to be sited in an area of commercial forestry land that was sheduled as suitable for certain forms of development.
 
After seeing todays news about Conrad Black:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7137080.stm

I hope everyone involved in this will pause for a moment to reflect on Trump's involvement with Hollinger's shareholder meeting in 2003:

Trump - "I fully support the company and its management, and in particular I have great respect for Conrad Black and David Radler,"

Trump told the assembled shareholders, many of whom were displeased with management. The real estate magnate held no shares in the company, but had recently purchased the Sun-Times building in Chicago from Hollinger.

Former vice-president Paul Healy testified on Wednesday that he arranged the proxy allowing Trump to speak on orders from Black, who had e-mailed Trump two days earlier asking him to appear at the meeting. "If you were able to put in a cameo appearance and say a supporting word, I'm sure it would have an impact on the group and be favourably noted in the press,'' Black wrote.
Click to expand...

http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20070523_092624_11800&source=srch

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1832492.ece

Manipulative? Nah! :eek:
 
Something happening tomorrow morning - to coincide with the full council meeting about Martin Ford. Can't say much more now. ;)
 
Currently at a party.

Ford sacked by 26 votes to 10 but 29 abstained - seems the much vaunted support is lacking.
 
fae the P&J

TRUMP TELLS NORTH-EAST: I AM TOTALLY COMMITTED


08:50 - 13 December 2007

Donald Trump last night renewed his pledge to create a world-leading golf resort after councillors dramatically sacked the man whose casting vote threw the tycoon's plans into disarray.

And he also welcomed the decision made at an emergency meeting of Aberdeenshire Council yesterday to back his £1billion proposals.

"I'm heartened and extremely grateful for their support," he told the Press and Journal last night from Trump Towers in New York.

And he said of his plans for the Menie Estate on the coast just north of Aberdeen: "I'm totally committed."

Hours earlier, a clearly crestfallen Martin Ford was voted off the council's infrastructure services committee - two weeks after his chairman's casting vote caused an unprecedented backlash.

In a dramatic turnaround, councillors agreed to support the resort and property development in line with their own planning officials' recommendations - although the final decision rests with the Scottish Government.

Mr Ford shocked business and tourism leaders - and Aberdeen City Council - on November 29 by rejecting the ambitious project, but won the respect of environmentalists and objectors.

The plans fall foul of strict national policies on building homes in the countryside and protecting natural heritage.

After his sacking, Mr Ford said it was a "bad precedent" showing the council crumbling under pressure.

Campaigners held banners in his support outside the council's Woodhill House HQ in Aberdeen.

Only 26 of the 65 councillors present voted to have Mr Ford removed. There were 10 votes of support and 29 abstentions.

Mr Ford said: "The past two weeks have certainly not been pleasant. This has tested relationships. Democracy has not been damaged yet, but it still could happen. Clearly the end result of a properly dealt with planning application is I am no longer chairman of the planning committee. That is a strange combination."

The motion to remove him was proposed by Councillor John Cox, who told the council: "I believe this has ruined many years of hard work."

But he praised Mr Ford for his "integrity" and said ousting him was the only way to repair the damage done to the council. SNP group leader Joanna Strathdee was visibly upset but backed the move.

She later said: "I regret that it came to this but the vote clearly showed he had lost the support of the council as a whole."

Council leader Anne Robertson, a supporter of Trump, said Mr Ford had "done nothing wrong" but added: "A question has been raised over this council's commitment to economic delivery in the north-east of Scotland." Despite this, she abstained from voting to remove her Lib Dem colleague.

Mr Ford said he will not step down as a councillor. His closest supporter, Lib Dem councillor Debra Storr, said removing a man who "acted with integrity" was "frankly a disgrace".

Mr Trump's project dev-eloper, George Sorial, said: "I'm extremely happy with the decision by Aberdeenshire Council. It goes a long way to showing we have a co-operative, business-minded local government to work with."

The plan now rests with Scottish ministers but the Trump Organisation will have to work closely with Aberdeenshire Council if the project goes ahead.

Last night, the chairman of Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Forum, Patrick Machray, said: "We will do everything we can to reinforce the message of its importance to the local and Scottish economy."

Aberdeen Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald said: "The decision to change the rules and the sacking of Martin Ford show that the shire council understand now that their rules were simply not fit for purpose. I am glad they have done this but it is a shame they did not do it before."

Aberdeen SNP MSP Brian Adam said: "It is clear Councillor Ford does not have the confidence of the majority of his colleagues and he can draw his own conclusions from that."

Alison McInnes, a north-east Lib Dem MSP, said: "I am glad the council acted swiftly and decisively. I think it will restore the confidence of the wider community."

But Green MSP Patrick Harvie said: "The bullying attitude of the Trump Organisation and the Scottish Government seems to have cost Councillor Ford his job."

Helen McDade, head of policy for the John Muir Trust, said: "To depose someone for following such clear guidelines and his conscience on such an important issue is of huge concern and questions the integrity of the new planning regime."

The trust was one of 14 environmental groups to criticise the council's decisions yesterday. The group includes the Scottish Wildlife Trust, RSPB and Ramblers Scotland.
 
mair fae i P&J

SALMOND FACES SLEAZE CLAIM OVER TRUMP PLAN


08:50 - 14 December 2007

First Minister Alex Salmond was told yesterday that his government "smells of sleaze" over its handling of Donald Trump's controversial £1billion plans for a golf resort in Aberdeenshire.

It emerged that two representatives from the US billionaire's organisation, George Sorial and Neil Hobday, were in the room with government chief planner Jim McKinnon when he phoned Aberdeenshire Council to discuss the application the day it was "called in" by the government.

It also transpired that Finance Secretary John Swinney - who will make the final decision to approve or reject the application - had attended a function at one of Mr Trump's golf clubs in New York State 48 hours earlier.

http://www.thisisnorthscotland.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=149212&command=displayContent&sourceNode=246582&home=yes&contentPK=19259271
 
In the meantime, I've been working my way through some of Trump's supporting doccumentation to the application. With interesting results.

More later! :)
 
What a surprise, Trump's man pulled out at the last minute & the Exec declined to comment. Stuart Spence of the Marcliffe at Pitfodels phoned in & didn't give a very good account for himself.

Ford however managed to explain his position & the various more complicated aspects of the planning decision rather well.

Good one! :D
 
I was absolutely disgusting with the 29 people that abstained from the vote.

They should be made to state why they abstained.

In fact, abstention should not be allowed except if there is a conflict of interest.
 
I don't know about the abstainers. I can see a number of good reasons for doing so.

Main one is because this vote is by implication a vote for or against Trump. Which is something they now can't vote on directly.

It also raises serious concerns for any councilor involved in comittee work & I can't see them being happy about that, whatever their views on Ford or Trump.
 
Pogo, can you do a precis for me of where we are in this story? I have a feeling I missed something; it stopped making sense sometime after the council said no. :confused:
 
Ok, in very short form:

After the rejection, Trump opted-out of the planning process entirely, refused to appeal/resubmit & instead demanded the refusal be overturned then released an unholy trinity of local buisness "leaders," a totally biased newspaper & an extremely unpleasant selection of pro-campaigners against the council & Martin Ford, rather than the shortcomings of the development itself was the main target. The press reporting beggared belief & contributed to a totally overblown impression about the whole scale & impact of the plan to this area.

An independant councilor (whose earlier actions I now have to keep zipped about :mad: ) moved for a no-confidence vote & the council rather than back the man they put in place to promote green development caved-in. Any sort of discussion or possibility of a negotiated compromise went out the window at that point.

Then, when the council went back through the record & accepted that Ford & his committe had acted without impropriety, so could not be overruled, the Exec stepped-in at the very last moment & used a previously unused clause in the 1997 planning act to call the whole thing in for them to reconsider. John Swinney was put in charge of the decision (which effectively means a Reporter or Public Enquiry).

When the vote finally came, Ford was voted out 26-10 but more importantly, 29 councillors abstained, which suggests that whatever their opinion on the development, they were very unhappy with the way the planning process was being railroaded. Suspiciously, the local SNP voted en-bloc.

In the meantime, it emerged that prior to & right up to the very moment of the decision to call-in the application, Trump's men - Sorial & Hobday plus their main local backer Stuart Spence (an old skool plastic-yank of the kind I've not seen in a decade or two. No disrespect to Americans either, these are our own guys!) had been in a series of meetings with Alec Salmond & the Exec's chief planner about continuing the proposal. Some of the meetings with Salmond were held in Spence's own hotel rather than on any council/Exec property. Eventually, we were told that Trump's lot were present at meetings critical to the call-in & only missed being present when the call was made to Aberdeenshire's planner because the Chief told them to leave the room.

Salmond has since claimed that he was merely acting as a constituency rep so is uninvolved but at the same time, he made himself very unavailable to opponents over a protracted period - indeed, after weeks of trying to speak to him, the best one of our folk managed was a few minutes in a corridor where he was very evasive. Representative?

BTW, Trump has been courting Hollyrood for a long time - right back to the days of Jack McConnel:

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/ViewArticle.aspx?articleid=2769589

Anyway, if that was not enough, the next thing to emerge is that Swinney is just days back from a fact-finder at Trump's Westchester Development in New York, (on behalf of Visit Scotland, apparently) so his impartiality is also now suspect.

Now Nicol Stephen has stepped in & asked that the decision to call-in itself is subject to an enquiry before Swinney's enquiry goes ahead. Today, Trump tirned on him & even the Exec itself - which may just be his mistake?
 
Somebody penned this ditty:

Singing.....

Oh Westering Ho,
Just look at ma hair,
See it spead far an wide,
all across the machair.

Naw, we'll go tae the east,
By Balmedie we'll try,
a new toon we will build,
and damn the outcry !!

We'll get Alex Salmon,
An' talk tae him a wee while,
He'll bypass the plannin'
tae get Donald tae smile.

Tae hell wi the planners,
Donald wants it pit there,
For he needs the big dunes,
Tae keep the wind aff his hair !!!
Click to expand...

:D
 
Interesting.

I seem to have touched a very raw nerve with the antis by raising the so-far barely mentioned matter of the scheme's casino element. They are clearly not wanting much said about that! :eek: :D
 
Interesting article about Neil Hobday, Trump's general manager for this project:

Article from Daily Mail, Saturday December 8th 2007-12-11

He is the man in charge of realising Donald Trump’s £1billion vision to build ‘the greatest golf course anywhere in the world’ on a stunning stretch of Scottish coastline.
But people in another community which the US tycoon’s right-hand man in Scotland also pledged to transform said last night that they were still ‘paying the price’ for backing that scheme.
Neil Hobday is project manager of Trump’s dream to create a world-class golfing complex in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire - featuring two championship courses, a five star hotel and housing.
But his high-profile role with Trump International Golf Links Scotland has riled the people of Spey Bay on the Moray coast. He promised to revive the area when he took over the Spey Bay Hotel and driving range and the lease of the historic Spey Bay golf Course in 2004. however, a year later, the company, Spey Bay Golf Links Ltd., went into administration owing almost £1million.
The course had been gifted to the local community by the Duke of Gordon in 1905 and is owne3d by Crown Estates, but is traditionally managed by the hotel owner.
An ambitious plan was put forward, involving the creation of a £600,000 clubhouse, golf lodges, greenkeepers’ maintenance facilities and an upgrading of the 18-hole links course to championship standard. It was to be funded by the construction of 21 houses on the site occupied by the hotel. In March 2004, Mr Hobday said he believed the venture’s potential was ‘immense’. He added: ‘We want to attract wealthy golfers from the UK, Europe and North America. Everyone in the local area could benefit from that and Spey Bay would be put back on the golfing map’.
But documents from the receiver show that in 2005 the company owed almost £948,000 - £500,000 to Allied Irish Banks, £280,000 to the previous owner of the complex and nearly £168,000 to local businesses.
This meant the loss of 25 jobs, the loss of facilities to golf club members and the closure of the Spey Bay Hotel. A member of the golf club, which continues despite having no facilities, said yesterday: ‘We would warn the people of Balmedie to be very careful. We are paying the price.
‘We were promised the development would revitalise the area. Mr Hobday was instrumental in giving this impression and held a public meeting, not dissimilar to that held in relation to the Balmedie development.
‘It is an irony that he waxes lyrical about the benefits this new golf resort will bring to the North of Scotland’.
Mr Hobday, 49,who is from Inverness-shire said yesterday: ‘I was disappointed when the Spey Bay development came up against insurmountable difficulties and US inverstors decided they couldno longer fund it, I was an agent for investors but the decision broke my heart. Spey Bay is the most beautiful place. It has so much potential’.
Trump’s plan for Balmedie was rejected by local councillors last week,but is now being considered by the Scottish Executive.
Click to expand...

So, he has been involved in something similar before, albeit on a much smaller scale. Hmmm?

He also went to school with Tony Blair!
 
Trump is heading for Antrim now:

DONALD Trump is set to visit to Northern Ireland next month, amid concern among business leaders in Scotland that the tycoon is preparing to ditch his golf course plans for Aberdeenshire and take them across the Irish Sea.
Ian Paisley Jnr, the son of Northern Ireland's First Minister Ian Paisley, told Scotland on Sunday that Trump had been invited in January. The billionaire property developer has an option on land in County Antrim and is expected to make a trip there before deciding whether to buy.

Sources close to the negotiations say that the Trump organisation is not limiting itself to an "either-or", in which it would choose one of Northern Ireland or Scotland for a new course.
Click to expand...

http://news.scotsman.com/donaldtrump/Trump39s-Antrim-visit-raises-golf.3616359.jp#2328131

Still don't doubt that this is much more than a tool to exert pressure on the Exec but I do wonder when the new costal protection laws in NI come into force?



Another petition on the SA webpage if anyone wants to sign:

http://www.meniescotland.co.uk/speak_now.htm
 
How can a golf course suddenly be benefiting the entire country?

This smacks of bullying tactics.
 
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