Trump threatens to derail offshore wind turbine test centre for ten years

Published on 27/12/2012 00:54

Property tycoon Donald Trump has threatened to delay a wind turbine development for a decade unless the government’s marine development body accedes to his demand for a public inquiry into the scheme.

The US-based entrepreneur has been waging a campaign against the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC), a proposed offshore turbine testing facility near his golf resort in Aberdeenshire.

He has been calling for an inquiry into the scheme for a year, but yesterday, Trump Organisation executive vice-president George Sorial confirmed he had instructed UK lawyers Dundas & Wilson to formally ask Marine Scotland to begin proceedings.

Mr Trump wants the EOWDC to be put “on an equal footing” with his golf resort, which was the subject of an inquiry in 2008.

If Marine Scotland refuses his request for an inquiry, Mr Trump has threatened a protracted round of legal battles which Mr Sorial said could last a decade. But he declined to link the future development of the resort, which has planning approval for houses and a hotel, with the outcome of the EOWDC bid.

Asked if Trump would leave the resort unfinished if the EOWDC was approved, Mr Sorial said it would “arrive at the decision when we are facing it”.

He said: “We want to provide the opportunity for us and anybody else who is against the development to cross-examine the parties involved.

“We were subject to a five-week public inquiry, and yet the EOWDC has the potential to change the nature of Aberdeen Bay forever.“