In spite of planning permission setbacks, Donald Trump has forged ahead with his plans for building a golf course resort on the wild estate at Menie on the North East coast of Scotland.
The development is huge: two 18-hole courses, a clubhouse and ancillary facilities, a 450-room hotel with conference centre and spa, 950 holiday apartments in 4 blocks, 36 ‘golf villas’, 500 houses for sale, accommodation for 400 staff, road access, and parking.
As well as netting riches for the US tycoon, Aberdeenshire Council estimate the development will generate 1,400 net additional jobs locally once the project is completed.
One of the major concerns has been that the Southern part of the new resort on the 450 hectare Menie Estate absorbs a third of the Foveran Links SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), an area with outstanding shifting sand dunes.
According to the government's own scientific advisors at Scottish Natural Heritage the Foversan Links is part of "the fifth largest and least disturbed sand-dune system in Britain".
But Trump has said without the SSSI component, with the natural topographic drama of the dunes, he wouldn't go ahead.
Trump's abrasive style has not enamoured himself with locals, particularly when it comes to using compulsory land purchase orders on residents of the Menie Estate who refuse to budge for the development.
The project has bumped along with resistance from local citizens groups such as Tripping Up Trump and unfavourable news reports.
Filmmakers Anthony Baxter (who appears at the beginning of the trailer above) and Richard Phinney were in the news after they were arrested by Grampian police for allegedly entering Trump's offices and filming documents without permission. The charges were dropped, but the incident appears to be a key part of their documentary.