Scotland: Farmer tell's Donald Trump "Piss Off"!

BALMEDIE, Scotland • The wild stretch of east coast Scottish shoreline near the village of Balmedie hardly looks like the setting for a battle between the most famous U.S. property tycoon and a stubborn farmer.

But this idyllic village is near where Donald Trump wants to build a billion-dollar golf resort, a five-star hotel, 950 time-share apartments and 500 houses, providing he can overcome the objections of Michael Forbes.

The 55-year-old salmon farmer has enlisted the support of well-wishers from around the world in his fight to stop Mr. Trump from developing the Menie Estate near Balmedie beach, about 21 kilometres north of the city of Aberdeen.

He is also refusing to sell land that sits right in the middle of the proposed development, believes the U.S. developer's plans offer little for Scotland and is annoyed at Mr. Trump for describing the state of his property as "disgusting."

"They say that money talks; not with me it doesn't," Mr. Forbes said.

"He has no chance of getting it. Take your insult and shove it. Do not bother me again: Not for sale."

Local opinion is sharply divided ahead of a key meeting next Tuesday, when councillors are due to make an initial ruling on Mr. Trump's plans. Meanwhile, the letters for and against keep pouring in.

The golf resort would be Mr. Trump's sixth, but the only one on this side of the Atlantic.

It would, he says, be a product of his links with Scotland. His mother grew up on a croft in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.

"Because my mother is Mary MacLeod from Stornoway - she lived in Stornoway for many years, I guess about 20 years before she came to the United States - I really had a preference for Scotland, and it's also the home of golf," Mr. Trump said in an interview posted on a Web site created by his company to promote the development (www.trumpgolfscotland.com).

"We saw a piece of land in Scotland that was really beautiful. And it's our ambition to ... build the best course anywhere in Europe and maybe the best course in the world, and I think we have the piece of land to do it."

The development provides a "unique opportunity to conserve and enhance the environment," according to Trump International.

The developer told Britain's Guardian newspaper he is "saving" the dunes: "It's a piece of land which is disappearing ...it's blowing all over the place."

But environmental groups, including Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), a government conservation agency, and pressure group Sustainable Aberdeenshire have criticized the plans to stabilize a rare, 4,000-year-old sand dune system, one of the top five dune habitats in Britain.

SNH says the development would effectively destroy a site of special scientific interest and is an important habitat for plants and animals.

On Mr. Trump's side are economic development and tourism agencies - Scottish Enterprise and its Scottish Development International arm, Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce and Visit Scotland.