Aberdeenshire finely balanced as new Council meets
Donald Trump's claims
Commenting on the claim by Mr Trump that the Scottish Executive called him and told him he would win, Cllr Martin Ford said: "This is an extraordinary claim by Mr Trump. If what he says is true, it is a serious matter for the Scottish Government. This was a planning application and there was a process to be followed designed to ensure fairness and proper consideration of the issues before a decision was reached.
Cllr Martin Ford continued "Who made this call and when, and on whose authority?
"No hint of this emerged in the evidence provided to the Scottish Parliament Local Government and Communities Committee enquiry.
"The Trump planning application was treated scrupulously by Aberdeenshire Council up to and including the decision to refuse it. Thereafter, normal procedures were abandoned as the Council and the Scottish Government attempted to get the decision reversed. If what Mr Trump says is true, it wasn't just procedural norms that were abandoned, but the core principles of proper decision making too. If the decision to grant permission was already taken, the whole public inquiry process, lasting for most of 2008, was no more than window dressing, a con.
"If the Scottish Government had reached a decision to grant the Trump application by late 2007 it had not done so in accordance with planning law. The process of deciding on the application at Scottish Government level, officially at least, did not even start until well into 2008.
"The Scottish Government must now disclose full details of the telephone call Mr Trump says he received.
"Any person in Government responsible for giving such an assurance to Mr Trump before the application had been properly considered will have to consider his or her position."
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