The decision to allow Donald Trump, the American property magnate, to go ahead with his £1bn golf resort on the Aberdeenshire coast will be greeted with equal measures of enthusiasm and disappointment.

The decision to allow Donald Trump, the American property magnate, to go ahead with his £1bn golf resort on the Aberdeenshire coast will be greeted with equal measures of enthusiasm and disappointment.

Only time will tell whether one of the two courses Mr Trump plans to build on the Menie Estate can live up to his billing of being "the finest in the world" and whether the economics of the venture, which the developers insisted was only viable if it included 500 houses for sale in addition to nearly 1000 holiday homes and apartments and a 450-bedroom hotel, remain realistic in the financial downturn. More immediately, however, it raises questions for all concerned with the good working of Scotland's planning system. The issues involved in this application - as with others that have polarised opinion, such as the Beauly to Denny powerline, which still awaits a decision, and the rejected proposal to build Europe's largest wind farm on the island of Lewis - are both local and strategic. It is essential that such applications are examined from all points of view.

In the case of the Trump organisation's proposal for Balmedie, the planning system operated on a micro-local scale. Because Aberdeenshire Council had devolved planning decisions to the infrastructure committee to speed up planning applications, it was considered by a committee of 14 and rejected on the casting vote of the chairman on the grounds of the threat to the fragile dune system which has been declared a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) and because the housing development was contrary to the local plan. Only in the fallout from this decision, which enraged the local business community, did the council alter its procedures to ensure that planning applications of regional or national importance go before the full council.

Other councils must learn from this: major developments, particularly those on environmentally significant sites, cannot be considered in the same way as applications for house extensions. Strategic planning is one of the most important functions of local government and decisions require democratic accountability.

In this case, transparency was further clouded because the developers lobbied the local MSP, who happens to be First Minister Alex Salmond. He was accused of failing to distinguish between his roles as constituency MSP and First Minister when the application was called in by the Scottish Government soon after he met Mr Trump's representatives. In that respect, as a Holyrood committee found, his actions were "cavalier".

Nevertheless, calling in the application was the right decision because it raised issues of importance that required consideration at a national level and then a public inquiry allowed the case to be made on both sides. What remains open to question is whether such a lengthy process is required and the effectiveness of environmental protection designations such as SSSI. Now that the decision has been made, it is essential the small print, which requires the provision of affordable housing, education and community facilities and the establishment of a Menie Environmental Management Advisory Group, is strictly adhered to.