Aberdeen city councillors and senior officials have voiced their deep disappointment over Aberdeenshire Council's decision to reject the Trump Organisation's proposals for a world-class golf resort on land outside the city.

They stressed that Aberdeen City Council played no part in the Aberdeenshire Council decision, which was made by a committee of an entirely separate local authority.

The City Council, they said, had supported the scheme "in the strongest possible terms" during consultations on the Trump plan to create two 18-hole golf courses, a 450-bed hotel and 1,500 private and holiday homes on the Menie Estate near Balmedie, outside the city boundary.

And they emphasised that despite the decision of Aberdeenshire's infrastructure services committee, the City and Shire region remained a first-class home for existing international businesses and for any other multinational companies seeking to base themselves in the North-east.

City Council leader Kate Dean was joined at a special briefing for the North-east media by deputy leader Kevin Stewart, planning committee convener Scott Cassie, City Council chief executive Douglas Paterson and head of planning and infrastructure Dr Margaret Bochel to express the City Council's strong support for the Trump plan.

Mr Paterson said they were now set to write a joint letter to the Trump Organisation to spell out that support and to urge Donald Trump to appeal to the Scottish Government if there is no re-think by Aberdeenshire.

Councillor Dean said: "This was not our decision, it was Aberdeenshire's. We are extremely disappointed by the decision of their infrastructure services committee.

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"We at the City Council believe that the Trump scheme would have been for the greater good of Aberdeen City and Shire. We have to look to our long-term future. We need to look at diversifying our economy and this scheme would have been the perfect platform for that.

"It would break my heart to see the scheme go elsewhere in Scotland or outwith the UK."

Councillor Dean said there was evidence elsewhere on the North-east coast that major development did not harm wildlife and cited the St Fergus gas terminal as an area where breeding birds were thriving.

She said she felt sure that the Trump Organisation would do all it could to ensure habitat remained as undisturbed as possible and added: "It is in their interests, as well as in everybody else's, to preserve our wildlife."

Councillor Dean said she took comfort from Aberdeenshire Council's subsequent decision to call a special council meeting as a matter of urgency to consider the decision of the infrastructure services committee.

She added: "The vast majority of Aberdeenshire's 68 councillors have not yet had the chance to express their opinion on this at all."

Councillor Stewart said: "Aberdeenshire's decision was short-sighted. Our planning committee unanimously supported the proposals. The people of Aberdeen City and Shire think similarly to us. People are aghast at the situation.

"This golf resort could have put us up there with Augusta and Valderrama and made us a major attraction for golf tourism and I sincerely hope we have not lost the opportunity.

"We have spoken to the Trump Organisation to say that yesterday's Aberdeenshire decision does not represent the views of the vast bulk of the people of the North-east.

Councillor Cassie pointed out that he had personally urged the city's planning committee to support the Trump plans "in the strongest possible terms when they came in front of members for consultation purposes and had won unanimous support".

He added: "It is quite ridiculous to say that Aberdeen City and Shire is not a place to do business. We are here to do business in the North-east of Scotland and as a city we can prove that.

"I would ask people to join us in appealing to the Trump Organisation to appeal to the Scottish Government against Aberdeenshire's decision.

Councillor Cassie also stressed that the land proposed for the links golf courses would continue to be home to a wide range of wildlife, as was the case at the Murcar, Royal Aberdeen, Newburgh and Cruden Bay courses on the same stretch of coastline.

Dr Bochel pointed out that Aberdeen City Council had made many big decisions recently to support and secure economic development. She said council officers and elected members had backed: the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route, 24-hour opening of Aberdeen Airport and proposals to extend its runway, plans to create the new world HQ for FirstGroup plc at its King Street depot, new HQ buildings for BP and Shelland proposals to relocate the International School to a new site in Pitfodels.

(GK/JM)