THE decision to approve Donald Trump’s golf resort application could be branded the worst planning mistake in the country this week after it was shortlisted for a Carbuncle award.
The annual event, which examines where planners, policy makers and architects have failed, has placed the US tycoon’s development at Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, in the running for its Pock Mark award.
The north-east featured twice on the list, with the decision to build the Union Square shopping centre in Aberdeen also making the last four.
The Carbuncles competition was set up in 2000 to provoke debate about the quality of development in Scotland’s towns and cities.
The Union Square development and the Trump resort – which will feature two golf courses, a 450-bed hotel, 950 holiday homes and 500 houses on protected sand dunes on the Menie Estate – will go head to head with a decision to build 16,000 homes at Leith Docks in Edinburgh and plans for a housing development at Glasgow Harbour waterfront.
Gordon Young, editor of Prospect magazine and www.architecturescotland.co.uk, which runs the Carbuncles, said it was an intriguing category.
“The planning awards in particular are interesting, as the planning decisions made now will impact on the Carbuncles of the future,” he said.
Other titles that are up for grabs include the Plook on the Plinth award which looks at the most dismal towns in Scotland.
In the running this year are Motherwell, Glenrothes and New Cumnock in Ayrshire.
“A primary criterion of the Carbuncles is that the towns shortlisted must have real potential, which local leaders for one reason or another are failing to exploit,” said Mr Young.
The winners of the Carbuncle Awards will be announced on Thursday.
Members of the public are invited to register their vote by logging on to the website at www.architecturescotland.co.uk