SNH lodges objection Donald Trump�s dream of building the world�s greatest golf course in his mother�s homeland hit a serious setback last night when Scottish Natural Heritage lodged an objection.

Donald Trump's dream of building the world's greatest golf course in his mother's homeland hit a serious setback last night when Scottish Natural Heritage lodged an objection.

SNH says his £1bn plan would seriously damage an important nature conservation site and sand dune habitats.

The flamboyant billionaire wants to create a resort to the north of Aberdeen on the 452-hectare Menie estate. It would include two 18-hole links golf courses; a 450-room hotel, conference centre and spa; 950 holiday homes; 36 golf villas and 500 houses.

There has already been global interest in the properties and the local business community is overwhelming in its support of the development which it has been estimated will boost the region's economy by £50m a year and the Scottish economy by a further £12m, with 6000 jobs created during construction and 1200 on completion.

The development has attracted very little opposition from members of the public and non-statutory bodies but a number of environmental organisations have indicated their opposition.

Both the RSPB and SNH were given additional time to submit their responses and the RSPB has already indicated it believes it would lead to unacceptable levels of destruction of nationally rare habitats on an important designated Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Now SNH has backed that up. It says it would effectively destroy one-third of the important natural heritage features of Foveran Links SSSI. SNH says it is not opposed in principle to the development and suggests that a single championship golf course could be accommodated on adjacent land within the development site without causing significant impacts on the habitats within the nationally important SSSI.

However, Mr Trump has said that the course he wants to create had been "designed by God". The dunes and natural features of the SSSI make up several of the holes in God's course and Mr Trump may feel the objections make his plans unworkable.

No-one from the organisation was available for comment last night.

Mr Trump's own environmentalists said at the outset that the resort would mean "significant adverse changes" to an environmentally protected area but believes action can be taken to mitigate the effects. They propose building an artificial holt for a colony of otters currently living within the site.

SNH has told Aberdeenshire Council that the development would lead to an overall loss of 40% of the designated site and it does not consider it possible to significantly mitigate or compensate for such a loss.

"The mitigation proposed fails to recognise that the communities which develop in these sand dune habitats represent many hundreds of years of ecological continuity. This does not lend them to translocation and once lost, many species would never return," it said.

Robin Payne, SNH's area manager for Grampian, said: "This stunning site at Menie with its huge sand dunes is part of the largest dune system in Scotland, stretching from Newburgh to Bridge of Don.

"As the development of a golf course at this location would cause such significant damage to the SSSI, and the dunes located to the south of it, we have submitted an objection to this part of the proposal.

"SSSIs are established to protect the most important 10% - 12% of Scotland's natural heritage and our duty is to have regard for that on behalf of all of Scotland's people.

"There is a common misconception that SNH makes the decision in cases such as this. I'd like to emphasise that SNH's role here is to advise Aberdeenshire Council on the impacts that any proposal would have on the natural heritage.

"The council will consider SNH's advice, along with all the other factors such as the road infrastructure, the Grampian economy, public services and also their own environmental duties when they are making their decision."