Potential US president Donald Trump will next week take a case to the UK’s supreme court, seeking to block a major offshore windfarm close to his Aberdeenshire golf resort.
In August 2011, Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm Ltd applied for consent under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 for the construction and operation of an electricity generating station, wind turbine/tower and turbine testing project called the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre, to be located in Aberdeen Bay, 1-2 km off the coast of Blackdog, Aberdeenshire.
The Scottish Ministers granted consent for the wind farm in March 2013, but Trump’s company – Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd– whose Menie Golf Course is situated within 3.5 km of the nearest proposed wind turbine, brought proceedings claiming that decision was unlawful.
The claim was dismissed by the Court of Session in Edinburgh, but on 8 October Trump’s company will take its case to the Supreme Court, which will be asked to rule on the correct construction of the 1989 Act.
Lords Neuberger, Mance, Reed, Carnwath and Hodge will also decide whether a key condition attached to the consent for the wind farm was so imprecise, void for uncertainty and unenforceable that it vitiated the consent.
