Scottish government to review Trump plans

LONDON - The Scottish government said on Tuesday it would review controversial plans by U.S. tycoon Donald Trump to build a $2 billion (972 million pound) golfing development in Scotland after they were rejected by the local council.

It said it was intervening because the project, to build two championship golf courses, around 1,000 homes, a luxury hotel and 36 villas on a pristine stretch of northeast Scotland's coast, was too "important" to be dealt with by the council.

Real estate magnate Trump had threatened to relocate the project to Northern Ireland after it was rejected by Aberdeenshire Council on environmental grounds last week.

In a statement issued late on Tuesday, a Scottish government spokesman said it would be "calling in" the project for review.

"Ministers recognise that the application raises issues of importance that require consideration at a national level," he said. "Calling the application in allows ministers the opportunity to give full scrutiny to all aspects of this proposal before reaching a final decision."

The Trump camp hailed the "good news" the project could still go ahead after it was rejected by the council's infrastructure and services committee. Committee chairman Councillor Martin Ford used his casting vote to break a 7-7 impasse over the scheme, which an earlier panel had approved.

Billionaire Trump has said the project would meet environmental concerns, create thousands of jobs and "put the northeast on the global tourist map".

Neil Hobday, director of the Trump project, told Reuters by telephone the tycoon was "very pleased" with the government's "foresight and bravery".

"He (Trump) is very impressed," he said, just minutes after the announcement. "We are very pleased ... in the fact that the government has stepped in at this stage. It is still live."

Anne Robertson, head of Aberdeenshire council, which rejected Trump's plans, said the government "quite rightly feels this application raises issues of such importance that they require scrutiny at a national level".

"What is important in all this is securing the economic future of the north-east of Scotland," she said in a statement. "If the decision of Ministers to call this application ... keeps it alive, then we welcome this intervention."

An emergency council meeting will still take place next week, Robertson said.

Environmentalists had feared extensive construction on the sensitive site would damage wildlife and local habitats.

About a third of the land that Trump wants to build on is classified as an area of "special scientific interest".

Ford has previously told Reuters the risk to the local environment was "too high a price to pay".