Inquiry closes into Trump's Scottish golf course plans

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — A public inquiry into a refusal to allow Donald Trump to build a luxury golf resort in Scotland ended Friday, with the US property tycoon's lawyer saying it would be a "tragedy" if it was not built.

"In my submission, this truly is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We will not see its likes again," said Colin Boyd in his closing speech to the hearing in the city of Aberdeen, northeast Scotland.

"It would be a tragedy for Scotland if we let it pass by."

Trump, a New Yorker whose mother was a Scot, wants to construct what he calls "the world's best golf course" as part of a one-billion-pound (1.7-billion-euro, 1.9-billion-dollar) complex north of Aberdeen.

But local planners last year rejected the plans, after concerns from...