Key figures in a vociferous pressure group trying to sabotage Donald Trump’s £1billion golf resort plans are based in the central belt and have few links with the north-east, it can be revealed today.
A Press and Journal investigation has found that many of the people running the Tripping Up Trump (TUT) campaign have tenuous or no connections with the Aberdeenshire coastline they claim to want to protect.
Ties between TUT and the more extreme Plane Stupid movement – which has targeted politicians and closed airports in the past – have also been uncovered.
TUT rose from the ashes of Sustainable Aberdeenshire, which lost all momentum following the Scottish Government’s decision to grant Mr Trump outline planning permission for his Menie Estate project.
But since bursting on to the scene earlier this year, TUT’s membership has been a guarded secret. However, details of some of the environmentalists behind the group have now emerged.
Last night a leading north-east business figure dismissed the “validity” of TUT’s campaign, while Mr Trump said he was glad its leading members were now being “named and shamed”.
Speaking from a golf course in Florida, the tycoon said his lawyers had advised to take legal action against the group.
TUT is being co-ordinated from the central belt by Glasgow-based Martin Glegg, who is originally from Banchory.
The 27-year-old graduated from Perth College with an HNC in video production in 2003 and currently works in schools in the Falkirk area doing “moving image workshops”.
He was a member of Sustainable Aberdeenshire and moved to establish TUT at the same time as the Plane Stupid protest group was drumming-up support in the north-east.
Plane Stupid, which fights against airport expansion across the UK, made headlines around the world earlier this year by dousing Business Secretary Lord Mandelson in green custard.
It is also opposing Mr Trump’s plans. In March, nine of its protesters were arrested after a demonstration at Aberdeen Airport which saw 19 flights cancelled and cost the airport and operators an estimated £1million.
Wearing wigs and golf visors, the demonstrators staged a mock game of golf with plastic clubs and balls to protest against the Trump development.
Tripping up Trump denies any links with Plane Stupid. However the Press and Journal understands that Glasgow man Jonny Agnew – one of the nine Plane Stupid activists who face a criminal trial over a protest at Aberdeen Airport – is an active member of Tripping up Trump.
The 23-year-old is understood to have been the driving force behind an anti-Trump petition which has attracted 15,000 signatures.
According to a TUT source, his Aberdeen Airport co-accused Tilly Gifford, 25, and 26-year-old Dan Glass have also attended TUT events. Both of them are also from Glasgow.
Mr Agnew confirmed that he was on Tripping up Trump’s mailing list and that he was backing the group’s cause – but denied that the groups were linked.
He said: “I get the e-mails and that, but Plane Stupid is very separate from Tripping Up Trump.”
Mr Glegg said he was unsure whether Plane Stupid members were among his ranks, but added: “In terms of the nuts and bolts of the campaign, Plane Stupid is nothing to do with us.”
Another Glasgow man, Kris McKernan, who owns and runs computer firm KMG Design, built the group’s website and has landed another job on the back of it.
Another well-known environmental campaigner, Frances McCartney, is TUT’s lawyer. She is based in Paisley. She runs Environmental Law Centre Scotland, a non-profit organisation which aims to “help community groups, individuals and the voluntary sector to protect the environment”.
She is currently representing Trump neighbour Molly Forbes, of Mill of Menie, who claims Aberdeenshire Council was wrong to allow the tycoon to start work on his championship course.
Ms Forbes’s son, Michael, is probably TUT’s most famous member. The 56-year-old has vowed that no amount of pressure from the Trump Organisation would persuade him to give up his 23 acres at Mill of Menie – a stance which has won him supporters around the globe.
Fellow Menie resident David Milne is an active member as well. The health and safety consultant is also refusing to sell his home, which is at Hermit Point.
London man Robin Parker runs the group’s Facebook social networking page, which currently has just under 1,000 registered members, or “friends” as they are referred to. Mr Parker is president of the Aberdeen University Student Association and has just finished a four-year BSc degree in geography in the city.
The 23-year-old went to the City of London School for Boys and talks about several other environmental causes on his own Facebook page, including Plane Stupid.
He has helped plan some of TUT’s events and set up the group’s merchandise website, which sells T-shirts and other TUT-branded goods.
Leeds man Danny Heptinstall, chairman of the Student Wildlife Association of Grampian, was also heavily involved in the group’s formative months. The 22-year-old Aberdeen University student has since taken a step back due to “other commitments”.
Geoff Runcie – who was leader of Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce when Mr Trump’s plans were first lodged – said the business community was still behind the proposals, despite TUT’s campaign. He said the fact that so many key players in the group were not from the north-east brought the “validity” of their protest into question.
“The business community has found it frustrating that an anti-development lobby from a small minority has been getting disproportionate attention – especially when many of these people have no vested interest in the economy of the north-east.”