First minister accused of helping cash backer win green light for £80m Aviemore development

ALEX Salmond was last night fending off political attacks over his personal intervention to help a party donor win planning approval for an £80 million development in Aviemore.

The first minister called his most senior planning official last month at a time when the development, backed by a hotelier who gave the SNP £30,000, looked at risk of collapsing because of a delay in the planning process.

His environment minister, Michael Russell, then contacted the chief executive of the green quango responsible for the delay to question the public body's stance.

The project was approved days later after the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) withdrew its concerns about the scheme.

However, a spokesman for Salmond said the first minister intervened only after being asked to do so by a number of Highland MSPs, including Labour's Rhoda Grant. He added that Salmond's actions may have saved jobs.

The row follows the planning applications made by Aviemore Highland Resort (AHR) Ltd for a "phase two expansion" of its Highland centre.

AHR executive chairman Donald Macdonald, who gave the Nationalists £30,000 last May, had expressed frustration with the "planning impasse" that was hampering his vision for the Aviemore site. The existing resort, which has hosted SNP and Labour conferences, is reportedly £50 million in debt and losing £10,000 a day.

Although another member of the consortium, the Bank of Scotland, was threatening to pull out of the project, Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) officials said on December 5 and 6 that four of the firm's five planning applications should be "deferred".

Part of the reason they did so was because Sepa, which is accountable to SNP ministers, raised concerns about possible flooding on the site. But on December 7, Salmond called the government's chief planner, Jim Mackinnon, to discuss the Aviemore proposal after Highland MSPs expressed concerns that the project might be in jeopardy.

He then discussed the application on the same day with Environment Minister Michael Russell, who called Sepa chief executive Campbell Gemmell about the government's concerns.

By December 14, the day of the CNPA meeting that voted on the applications, "revised" papers were issued to board members that no longer contained the Sepa concerns. A minute of the meeting, which backed the Aviemore plans, noted that one board member walked out of the meeting after expressing "concern" at the "limited time" board members were given to digest the revised papers.

Grant and fellow Highlands and Islands MSP Mary Scanlon (Conservative) had written to Salmond after attending a meeting on December 6 with SNP MSP Fergus Ewing and Donald Macdonald. However, Grant last night told the Sunday Herald she knew little of the planning application before the meeting, and said she had been invited to the gathering in order to provide Ewing, the local MSP, with political cover. We knew we were there at the meeting for some reason. I don't know why. We were providing cross-party support of some sort," she said.

Salmond was accused last month of breaking the ministerial code of conduct after he called Mackinnon about Donald Trump's plans for a golf complex in Aberdeenshire. However, the first minister is thought to have acted within the rules, as the Trump plan falls within his Gordon constituency, allowing him to meet developers and objectors. By contrast, the Aviemore development is outside Salmond's constituency, as well as involving one of his party's most generous donors. A spokesperson for the first minister said: "On December 6, the first minister was presented with letters on behalf of an all-party group of local MSPs suggesting that Scottish government agencies were foot-dragging in submitting reports regarding the Aviemore planning application to the planning authority.

"Quite properly, the first minister contacted the chief planner on December 7 for advice on the procedures and status of this planning application. On the same date he also spoke to the responsible minister, Michael Russell, to ensure there could be no possible suggestion from any quarter that Scottish government agencies were responsible for any delay which resulted in a planning authority being unable to properly consider an important proposed development."

Russell said: "What I would say about the Aviemore planning application is, I speak to Sepa on a whole range of issues to do with how they exercise their regulatory functions." A spokesman for Donald Macdonald said: "I am not aware of Alex Salmond, Mike Russell or anyone else interfering in that process."

Labour MSP Andy Kerr said: "The allegation that Alex Salmond has personally intervened in a planning application by a substantial SNP donor is very serious. Every SNP member from the first minister downwards should have been in no doubt that they should have not acted or become involved in the Aviemore planning application. Clearly a number of them have failed to do so including, the first minister himself, Mike Russell and Fergus Ewing. They must be held to account for these inappropriate actions."