Established 2005 Registered Charity No. 1110656

Scottish Charity Register No. SC043760

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A Don deal?

October 01 2009
With Donald Trump around, it‘s like the clearances all over again... It's like the clearances all over again. Homeowners in Aberdeen were dealt a blow on 1st October as the local council refused to rule out Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) being issued, which would force residents from their homes. The driving force behind attempts to make locals sell up is the Donald Trump Organisation, which is finalising plans for a ¬¨¬£1billion golf resort at Balmedie. Following months of uncertainty over the project, Councillor Martin Ford, a leading opponent of the Trump scheme, tabled a motion against the use of CPOs. As Councillors arrived at the Aberdeen Conference Centre to vote on the issue, they were met by a crowd of anti-Trump protestors waving placards. A petition containing 15,000 signatures was brought by David Milne, one of the four homeowners refusing to leave the Menie estate. Mr Milne, who has lived at Hermit Point for 17 years, urged the Council to make a final decision to prevent CPOs being used: "I don't know how many of you have even tried to imagine what its like not knowing if your home will be your own for much longer. Not knowing if the next birthday or Christmas will be the last in your own house. "To delay taking this vote today would also add to the intolerable, psychological torture that we are under. "I ask you now to stand up for your own personal conscience, stand up for ethics, stand up for morals and stand up for the reputation of Aberdeenshire by rejecting both the developers request to delay the decision and the basic concept of a local authority using compulsory purchase powers to support a private commercial leisure development to the detriment of its constituents." The proposals for Menie Estate include two championship golf courses, 950 holiday homes and 500 houses, and were approved by the Scottish government last December. Since then the Trump Organisation has claimed that further land is required to achieve the vision of building the "world's greatest" golf venue - despite verbal assurances to homeowners which assured them otherwise. One of the four affected residents, Susan Munro, who has lived at Leyton Cottage for 28 years, said Trump had promised her that no more land was needed. "The last thing Mr Trump said to me was, 'Susan, I don't need your house, I don't need your land. I have plenty, we'll be good neighbours'. "It's been my home for almost 30 years, but the council will just give in to Trump. It's our heritage, a protected bit of land." The gathering momentum of opposition to the Trump Organisation has seen protests take place nationwide. Several iconic statues in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Stirling were covered with masks of Donald Trump's face (pictured). The Menie Liberation Front said that the masks were intended to draw attention to the growing resistance to the tycoon's plans. A spokesman says: "We are dressing up famous Scottish statues as the American tycoon to symbolise the way Trump thinks he can walk over Scotland. This development has gone too far." For more info and to sign the petition, see trippinguptrump.com
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