February 23, 2015
Scotland

Donald Trump uses FOI to get wind farm documents

David Ross, Highland Correspondent | The Herald | 23 February 2015 | www.heraldscotland.com

Donald Trump has used Freedom of Information legislation to make Aberdeen City Council reveal the contents of documents on the offshore wind farm, he is convinced will blight his nearby golf development.

The American billionaire insists work on the giant hotel and housing development, integral to his long term vision for a golf resort north of Aberdeen at Menie, will only begin if plans for an 11-turbine European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC), are scrapped.

It is not a conventional wind farm but a testing facility for offshore technology and the tycoon lost a challenge in the Court of Session a year ago But has said he is willing to go to the UK Supreme Court to stop the £230m EOWDC.

Last May the Trump organisation asked the council for information including all documents relating to any meetings and dialogue between the council and the Scottish Government on the subject of the EOWDC planning application.

The council disclosed some information and but not all and said that it did not hold certain other material. Mr Trump’s legal advisers appealed to Rosemary Agnew, the Scottish Information Commissioner, who has now found that in responding to the request, “the council had failed to identify and retrieve some information covered by the request.”

She now requires the local authority to respond to Trump International’s requirement for the missing documents, although she was satisfied that the council had done enough to search for some of the information requested.

But she found that that “Aberdeen City Council failed to comply in full with the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations in responding to the information request made by Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd.”

A spokesman for Aberdeen City Council said: “We can confirm that the City Council has complied with the Information Commissioner’s findings and provided the requested documentation to the enquirer.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/02/23/donald-trump-uses-foi-to-get-wind-farm-documents/