Donald Trump has finally been given the go-ahead to build what he says will be “the world’s greatest golf course” in Scotland.
Despite years of delays and vocal opposition to the project, the Aberdeenshire Council yesterday granted The Donald permission for the construction of the championship links in northeastern Scotland.
Work is expected to begin today.
“My team will [now] finally get to work and build the world’s greatest golf course for Scotland and for the great game of golf,” Trump said. “We are building on the finest piece of land I have ever seen and we will turn it into a national jewel.”
His organization said that more than $60 million had already been invested in the Scottish project during four years of development.
The group added that it had gone through nine planning applications and a lengthy public inquiry and it was “widely accepted this project is the most scrutinized application in recent UK history.”
Despite local protests — including opposition by some homeowners who refuse to sell their property — Trump vowed last month the project would go through and that he would cut the ribbon for the resort’s opening within a year and a half.
The course is due to be completed in 2012 and a spokeswoman said Trump was keen to host the British Open there in the future.
The building of the links is phase one of a $1 billion-plus development on the Menie Estate, about six miles north of Aberdeen, that Trump hopes will eventually include a hotel and resort.
This year’s 150th-anniversary British Open will be played at the “home of golf” in St. Andrews in two weeks.
The green light for the project came as nine environmental activists were convicted of disrupting Aberdeen Airport in a protest against Trump.
The demonstrators climbed to the roof of the terminal building in March and tied themselves to fencing with a banner that opposed the golf resort.
In April, vandals caused more than $60,000 in damage on the future site of the resort, but Trump aides said it would have “no impact” on the project’s timetable.