Donald Trump’s controversial plans for a golf course worth 750 million pounds ($1.2 billion) in Scotland may be held up by the financial crisis, according to his latest statements reported by the British media.
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Donald Trump
The Apprentice star and businessman told reporters in the UK Monday that "the world has crashed" since he first started planning the luxury scheme and added that “the timing will depend on the markets.”
While the golf course is set to tee off in July 2012, the whole of the ambitious building programme will not be finished by then, Trump said, adding that there was still plenty of appetite for the golf course, which is north of Aberdeen.
"We have been inundated from New York and Scotland from people who want to come and play the course," he said. "Thousands of people have been calling: 'how can we play it?'"
It took five years for Trump to get consent to build two courses, a 450-bed five-star hotel, 500 homes and 950 short-term rental apartments on the site after local residents and politicians objected to his initial plans. The Scottish government had to intervene to get the plans approved.
There are still some protestors opposed to the scheme, who are grouped together under the name Tripping Up Trump.
Trump said Monday that he wants former James Bond Sean Connery and Alex Salmond, the head of the Scottish Parliament, to open the course.
"I have great respect for Alex and I'm very glad he won the election. The people of Scotland are well-represented with him," he told journalists.
"Sean Connery, who is one of the greats of the world, not just Scotland, came out strongly in support of what we are doing and we love Sean, and I'd be honoured to have both of those gentleman involved in the opening."
