Hi guys - still furiously knitting for Christmas but just wanted your opinions on something 
I wondered if anyone knew much about Donald Trump - I know the basic stuff: tycoon, unbelievable amount of money, hamster stapled to his head etc, but he’s trying to set up a massive golf thing in my hometown and there’s a lot of controversy about it. It’s this £2bn development, creating homes and jobs and so on, bringing a massive amount of revenue into the city and surrounding area - but -
One of the big sections of the proposed course is an area called Balmedie Beach, which has a protected unique ecosystem. Nothing like it exists anywhere else in the world, and it’s feared that development would destroy it.
So, the fight goes back and forward - the council had a hung vote and then finally ruled against it, but 11 places elsewhere in Scotland came forward offering their areas for the site. So now he’s given the council a 30-day ultimatum before he takes it somewhere else, and the decision’s been taken away from the council and into the hands of the Scottish Government, although they’ve said there’ll be no ruling until March because there’s protocols to follow.
There is a school of thought that says that the ecosystem would be better protected under his development than not, because he would have to follow environmental policies that drunken neds with cider and novas don’t have to follow (when the families have gone home for the day, they’re the ones that frequent the area atm), but, what I really want to know is how likely he is to follow the environmental policies.
Obviously none of this is my decision - but I can see both sides - the revenue would make a huge difference to our area, hopefully - but I also believe that unique ecosystems should be protected and that all that money isn’t worth losing such an important place in our country (it’s a great beach for families on the 2 or 3 days of the year it’s not too freezing to go there ;-)).
I also have a thing against huge corporations getting what they want just cause they can throw money at it, but I’m willing to accept that it might be a good thing as long as the coast is protected.
So, any ideas? Experiences? Opinions?
Thanks for your time
Fi xxx
I kind of held out hope for someone with a responsible approach, but hey. About the old lady - there’s been a similar outcry here - the proposed development included a guy’s farm, and he just refused to sell. No matter what he was offered, and it was reportedly quite a lot, he refused. The problem is, if the council were to rule in Trump’s favour, it wouldn’t matter if he refused to sell because there’s a clause to account for it. The rule became public when they started planning our bypass (which still hasn’t come into being) - wherever it goes, some people are going to lose their homes, so there’s always going to be people who object but have to be overruled. Sigh.