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Trump's broken promises anger Scottish village

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AFP Balmedie (UK)
Last Updated : Nov 10 2016 | 5:49 PM IST
In a Scottish village on the shores of the North Sea, US president-elect Donald Trump is nothing but a nuisance neighbour for many local residents.
The golf resort he owns in Balmedie has congratulated the tycoon on his stunning election win, but members of the community said he broke promises on creating jobs and rode roughshod over concerns about construction.
Locals also complain about the six-foot wall the billionaire developer had built around Trump International Golf Links, drawing an analogy with the barrier he is planning for the Mexican border.
"This local area here was promised 1,400 jobs, a five-star hotel, two golf courses, an equestrian centre and God knows what else and we've got nothing," said Michael Foote, whose property overlooks the course.
His advice for the American people? "Good luck."
The resort actually employs around 95 people and made an annual loss of 1 million pounds (USD 1.2 million) in 2014 and 2015, according to company records.

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As he worked in his toolshed, fellow resident Finlay Munro pointed to Trump's wall on the border of his own property and grumbled about the businessman.
"He's not a very nice neighbour. We've had a lot of issues with him over the past 10 years," Munro told AFP following Trump's election triumph on Tuesday.
The announcement that Trump, whose mother was Scottish, intended to build a luxury golf course in was initially greeted with great fanfare in 2006.
He was appointed a Global Scot, a business ambassador scheme for executives with Scottish links, and the regional government overruled objections from residents about the impact on the environment.
The Scottish government has since withdrawn the post following Trump's remarks about banning Muslims from entering the US and he was stripped of his honorary degree by the nearby Robert Gordon University.
"Mr Trump's recent remarks have shown that he is no longer fit to be a business ambassador for Scotland," a government spokesman said in December.
Trump International Golf Links, one of the tycoon's two golf courses in Scotland, gained the support of the Scottish government after promising thousands of jobs and a 1.0-billion pound investment.
But relations quickly turned sour when Trump began intervening in local politics and the scale of the project turned out smaller than originally planned.
Trump lodged an objection in 2013 to a wind farm off the coast of his development, and went to the Scottish parliament to warn it would destroy Scottish tourism.
However, he was unable to provide any evidence to bemused lawmakers other than: "I am the evidence," and he later lost the legal action against the wind farm.

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First Published: Nov 10 2016 | 5:49 PM IST

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