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Great Scott! Trump plays name game in Menie

May 27 2010

Great Scott! Trump plays name game in Menie
Not content with owning, reshaping and rebuilding a slice of Aberdeenshire coast into a golf resort Donald Trump is set to end 600 years of tradition when he renames the Menie Dunes as “The Great Dunes of Scotland.”

The hyperbolic title is presumably intended to appeal to an international clientele by laboriously affirming the sandy greatness of an area of raw natural beauty.

Observing that most people outside Menie had never hears of the place Trump explained: “I really feel that the [current] name of the dunes – most people don’t understand it.”

“I’m going to henceforth name them the Great Dunes of Scotland. I think it’s a more appropriate name, I think it’s a bigger name, I think it’s a better name and I think it’s a name people can really understand and relate to in Scotland.”

The news was received badly by protesters mobilising against ‘The Donald’s’ golf plans however with one opponent, Sue Edwards, opining: “The arrogance of the man knows no bounds. It’s appalling. We’re going to rename him Donald Rump.”

Trump met with Gareth Hoskins Architects yesterday to oversee the development of plans for the site, which will eventually accommodate two golf courses, a hotel and over a 1,000 homes and holiday apartments.

Trump is presently embroiled in a battle of minds with vocal local Michael Forbes who is refusing to sell up a critical property on the estate, dubbed a “slum” by Trump.

8 Comments

Not an OBE
#1 Posted by Not an OBE on 27 May 2010 at 12:19 PM
Has Gareth Hoskins, Trump's Chosen One, managed to redraw his 'Masterplan' yet to miss out homes and land owned by others? If not he'll have a big fight on his hands over enacting CPOs, especially since the Tripping Up Trump purchase of an acre of land from Mr Forbes. There are now a whole shedload of new owners to deal with, including an MSP.

You too can join in

http://www.trippinguptrump.com/enter-the-bunker

Still, it's a job and someone has to make cash from the misery of others, eh Gareth?
hasn't got a chip on his shoulder because he didn't get an OBE
#2 Posted by hasn't got a chip on his shoulder because he didn't get an OBE on 28 May 2010 at 08:46 AM
Let me get this right ... a rich American is coming to Scotland to spend about a billion pounds. Pumping money into our economy, generating jobs and providing new homes. He's also using a Scottish architect who's pretty good, and at a time when next to nothing is getting built because of the economic downturn.

What a git.
Turned down an OBE
#3 Posted by Turned down an OBE on 28 May 2010 at 09:45 AM
Not that these things were vital in the area as they weren't. There's a long way to go yet before anything is built though, especially if Gareth Hoskins really can't alter his plans to leave out homes and land where local people want to say put, don't want to be bullied out by Trump's land grab.

There's a vast amount of land where new homes could be built, not here.

The claims for jobs and the economy might prove not all that the gullible think they will be.
shell duck
#4 Posted by shell duck on 28 May 2010 at 17:50 PM
Think it was Thomas More that itterated " It profits a man nothing to sell his soul for the whole wild world"
You either have morals or you dont. You dont wave them because you need to pay your staff.
You either wilfully work for tasteless money grabbing monsters or you dont.. Nuf said
Its a precious environment and there is no justification for raping wild Land when there is poor agricultural land right next door.
Does the "Brown field" argument not apply here.. if you pay a big enough bribe. If the economy were not faltering this would not stand a chance...
I mind the argument that its better something good is built than something rubbish... Never bought that. Why put lipstick on a Gorilla.
Only in Aberdeen could this happen.
Its disgusting and Gareth Hoskins should be ashamed of himself.
Everyone needs work ... but working on that....
Its a majestic moving Dune and anyone presently can go there. Its about to be turned into a hideous exclusive Golf theme Park ....with a client that has about as much taste as is required to sell low grade Ice Cream at the Gate House... to a theme Park.
What about the Land Reform Bill , or does that not apply here.. Special exemptions.
I play Golf with my dad just enough to be reminded that Pringle Jumpers, over sized woods and creased trousers are about as perverse as the modern male can get. Really ... whats going on.
The "Good Architecture" cannot be GOOD , when the brief is rotten to the core.
No wonder a poor Planner, ill equiped to deal with huge decisions like this took extreme action.
Was reminded of the Nuclear reactor versus Byke shed and the commitee decision making process. ( byke shed takes months and the reactor is signed in 2.5 minutes....This is so toxic no one thought about it...as it was too bitter to consider.

So Aberdeen avoids the recession by backing Ian Wood and Donald Trump.

We are teaching architecture Students by the hundreds... the rudiments of sensitivity, trying to found them in some new morality ...mean while back at the ranch ... an eminent practitioner is backing this....
You really can see J R EWINGS a plenty rolling up the drive to the Hotel in the Shining after gawking at the aspiring in their new build Golf Villas.

Yee hah

Jinx... I wish Bill Hicks was alive to comment on this.
Eli (not scared to use my own name) Brown
#5 Posted by Eli (not scared to use my own name) Brown on 28 May 2010 at 21:51 PM
Letting one of Scotland's most wonderful natural assets, which could go on serving a broad spectrum of our community both locally and globally, as a place of wonder, health and celebration of life and biodiversity, be sold so cheaply to a man who has done little but add to ugliness, exploitation and the expansion of a world fuelled by fear and greed, is not good news for anyone. We would make far more money and friends globally by sensitive and homegrown development. We could educate our young people to be thoughtful and enlightened ambassadors who could reveal the true beauty and wonder of Scotland to visitors who seek just that which has become so rare, landscape that has not been tampered with. Even just changing the name of the Menie Dunes re-writes history, and is a stark illustration of Trump's intentions and our continued apathy in selling ourselves short globally. We really do have something very precious to offer visitors to Scotland, and not just golfers. We will not benefit economically from this investment in the long term, and it will be many generations, if ever, that the dammage it causes can be reversed. We have some incredibly strong alternative routes to developing our economy, so lets start believing in ourselves and those who respect what we have. We can do it, we can make something better. We really do hold the cards, Trump or no Trump.
Geoff
#6 Posted by Geoff on 31 May 2010 at 00:41 AM
The Menie Dunes - “The Great Dunes of Scotland.”
Vacsay Island - “Robert Burns Island”
Prestwick Airport - "Pure dead Brilliant Glasgow Prestwick."
Hanging Judge
#7 Posted by Hanging Judge on 2 Jun 2010 at 18:23 PM
Trump offers Scotland a dream golf resort on a silver platter for free - it's quite amazing when you think about it - every other nation would blow him to locate it in their country. It's a shame that a handful of Luddite losers can delay a project that millions of Scots probably back. The law needs to be reformed in Scotland to stop a pithy number of tree-huggers and and a slum owner from jeopardising Trump's golf resort.
Sycamore
#8 Posted by Sycamore on 2 Jun 2010 at 19:45 PM
Possibly the 'Luddite losers' see that spoiling a SSSI (so really, not free, and we all lose ) and building a mega development which isn't really about golf but about 'luxury' housing to make Trump cash isn't all that some make it out to be? Trump isn't into philanthropy really, is he? As many have found to their cost in other countries.

Good article in the Press and Journal today about Trump, his lousy taste, and his bad mouthing of decent Scots residents.
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1761643

There are, of course, more residents than one affected by Trump's plans, but no doubt Hanging Judge hasn't bothered to wise up on the full history before mouthing off, half cocked.

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