![]() He has accused C4C of being “an AstroTurf front” for the American developers. NatureScot’s opposition has received enthusiastic backing from Not Coul, a local campaign group led by environmental consultant Dr Tom Dargie, who has lived for 30 of his 75 years next to Coul Links and has explored every inch of it. Playing it is what makes people want to come here – on genuine links land right next to the sea, following the natural contours, not some artificial obstacles created on flat farmland far away from the beach.” ![]() It has to be a world-class golf course, like the existing Royal Dornoch links course nearby that is so economically important to the area. To justify that, and to deliver the jobs we are predicting, this can’t be just another golf course. “This proposal will be the biggest inward economic investment into east Sutherland ever. Campaigners for an ‘eco’ course at Coul Links are quick to point out the differences. Yet what looks like an olive branch, says C4C’s Sutherland, in reality shows how little grasp the statutory body has of economic realities.ĭonald Trump plays a shot at Trump Turnberry golf resort in Ayrshire. In a report lodged in May with the Highland council on the new plans, NatureScot suggested the golf course may be more acceptable if it was moved back on to adjoining farmland. ![]() “There are socioeconomic benefits without a shadow of doubt,” he says, “but how do you weigh that against the impact on a nationally important site?” It would be akin to death by a thousand cuts.”Īs a Golspie-born man, the affable Mackay does admit to feeling “uneasy” that a scheme to bring jobs to an area with so little year-round employment opportunities might be lost. “We can see that improvements have been made over the first proposal, but the course still spreads from one end of the fragile dune system to the other and would therefore cause habitat loss. “It is very challenging to locate a proposal like this on an SSSI,” says NatureScot’s head of operations north, David Mackay. NatureScot is again advising against the development. The council approved the earlier plans by 16 to 1 but opposition from NatureScot, a statutory body with responsibility for maintaining SSSIs, caused the proposal to be referred to ministers. The scheme will go before the local planning authority, the Highland council, in early September. Substantial funds would be invested to employ and train staff all year round to restore the environmentally important site.Ĭoul Links on the north-east coast of Sutherland in Scotland is home to wild flowers, rabbits and deer and has been designated a site of special scientific interest. Binding commitments were made to improve what it says is a dune system “degraded” by invasive species growing out of control. This would be for tees and greens, with the fairways in between left as they are now and simply mown. With the pro bono help of eco-experts, C4C created a new proposal to develop just 1.5 hectares at Coul Links (90% less than previously). On a 44% turnout – “which compares favourably with council elections here, and this was a single issue” – just short of seven in 10 voted in favour of a “world-class, environmentally sensitive” golf course on Coul Links. They ran a crowdfunding campaign to stage a local referendum in June 2021 so people could express their views. He has joined forces with others in the area to set up C4C as a not-for-profit company. The 62-year-old businessman, from a Sutherland family (“hence the name”), has been part of the community all his life.
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