Trump ups ante against critic of £1bn golf resort

Published on Thursday 16 April 2009 22:02

THE increasingly bitter war of words between American billionaire Donald Trump and one of the most outspoken critics of his £1 billion Scottish golf development reached new heights yesterday.

Debra Storr, the rebel Liberal Democrat councillor who had accused the Trump Organisation of breaching access rules at the tycoon's Menie Estate, near Aberdeen, revealed that she has now been reported to the Standards Commission by the billionaire's representatives.

And she said angrily: "I think he's trying to put pressure on me to stop speaking my mind on matters of legitimate public interest. He simply doesn't want people there.

"First of all one of his goons unlawfully detains me, then he writes me an incredibly abusive letter, and now he refers me to the Standards Commission for something that the Standards Commission are going to dismiss out of hand.

"He is just trying to intimidate and bully me. And I am not easily bullied."

Ms Storr, who was one of the Liberal Democrat councillors who quit Aberdeenshire Council's ruling administration in the fall-out over the controversial approval for the Menie Estate development, renewed her attack on the Trump Organisation last month when she claimed she had been harassed by Trump security staff after she began taking photographs of locked access gates on the sprawling estate near Balmedie.

She said she had been detained by the estate's security staff until police arrived to question her about the photographs and accused the Trump employees of intimidation and "thuggish behaviour".

In turn, Mr Trump sent an angry personal letter to Ms Storr in which he claimed she was trying to "harass and discredit" his plans for the Menie Estate.

The tycoon said: "It has become clear to everyone your bitter and negative campaign against this project is purely motivated by self-interest and your irrational need to promote an extremely unpopular personal agenda."

Yesterday it was revealed that the Trump Organisation had gone on the offensive again and lodged a formal complaint against Ms Storr to the watchdog which deals with allegations of misconduct against councillors.

George Sorial, the Trump Organisation executive in charge of the Menie Estate development, explained the reasons for referring Ms Storr to the commission.

He said: "We have no objection to her voicing her opinions. We disagree with them, as does 99 per cent of Aberdeenshire, but we have never done anything to try to silence her.

"However, when she is breaking the law, as she clearly was, we are going to do what any other citizen would do.

Our complaint is that she broke the law – she is a trespasser – and then she publicly maligned us and falsely accused us of doing something wrong where no-one has charged us with anything."

He added: "She is a distraction. She is a nuisance – like a fly – and we merely swatted her out of the way."