Coul Links (golf or not)

Coul Links lies just to the north of Dornoch on the east coast of Sutherland in Scotland. It is an area of dynamic coastal sand dunes, with internationally important wetland features, bordered to the east by Embo beach and the North Sea and to the north by the mouth of Loch Fleet. Immediately to the west lies improved farmland and to the south the village of Embo. The centre of the links is positioned at approximately 57.9°N, 4°W, grid ref. NH814939. The land forms part of Coul Farm. It is proposed that a golf course will be built on Coul Links. The Highland Council Impact Assessment form accompanying the initial planning submission states that "The proposed development has the potential to affect nature conservation interests on and around the site that are designated as being of international and national importance (Ramsar, Special Protection Area and Site of Special Scientific Interest). In addition, there are recorded archaeological remains and the archaeological potential of the site is high". The site is a hive of biodiversity, home to over 1,400 species.

Drone's-eye fly-overs of the southern section of Coul Links with views towards the northern section that show the dune slacks in their Winter flooded condition can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13nh1l5LTCk and dry in early September at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-hjFAyc_IE

After The Highland Council approved the planning application for a golf course at Coul Links, against the advice of its planning officer and of SNH (now NatureScot), the case was called in by Scottish ministers. A Public Inquiry was held in February/March 2019.

ttps://www.dpea.scotland.gov.uk/CaseDetails.aspx?id=119883

The inquiry reported to ministers in November 2019. On 21 February 2020 a decision was announced, “The Scottish Government has considered the reporter’s findings carefully and agree with the recommendation that planning permission should be refused.” “The likely detriment to natural heritage is not outweighed by the socio-economic benefits of the proposal.”

The Scottish ministers' reasoning suggests that a golf course routing at Coul Farm more sympathetic to the ecosystems of the dunes and respectful of their protection classifications could have met with little objection.

June 2022 saw a very similar scheme to the original entering the planning process. That application was validated in February 2023. The groundhog is not one of the species that make Coul Links worthy of environmental protection. At considerable time and taxpayer expense, a Public Inquiry confirmed that Coul Links is a site of national importance. The revived golf course proposal is being justified on the grounds of local (East Sutherland) economic benefit. That benefit would to a significant extent be gained at the expense of other golf tourism destinations within Scotland.

Details of the current planning application can be found at  http://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/  reference 23/00580/FUL.

coullinksgolf.com

This website aims to collect and provide links to items appearing on the internet that concern Coul Links and the proposal to site a golf course on that dune land. There is little editorial input beyond the brief description above and now extensive timeline below (and in the news archive) and our efficiency, or otherwise, in locating and correctly labelling relevant links. (A number of the links provided have become obsolete as interested parties have become inactive in the months/years since Scottish Ministers refused planning permission for the first proposed golf course at Coul Links.)

We hope that this website can serve to help people make an informed decision on support for or opposition to a golf course on Coul Links. The golf course plan has, regrettably but understandably, created deep divisions in local opinion with a quantity of questionable rhetoric reported in the local press, ("Cars and cats kill more birds than golfers." councillor McGillivray, The Press & Journal 13th November 2017). During the progress of the first planning application, the planning submission, consultee responses and public comment on The Highland Council planning website very possibly constituted a more reliable source of facts than did the media coverage listed in the lower part of this page. Along with media links, at the foot of this page we will seek to include any information that we can source, be it press releases or data, published by the developers or their agents.

When older news updates (now in the news archive page) sometimes read as being critical, it was no more than simple frustration with the demise of communication with the public from the original would-be developers and their failure to submit documents within the deadlines set by the Public Inquiry. We also admit to a growing frustration with the re-emergence of the discredited first proposal dressed up as fresh thinking.

coullinksgolf.com had intended to remain active to report on outcomes for Coul Links such as a management agreement and prospects for the recovery of the Northern Brown Argus butterfly presence after the fire of late March 2020. It will now remain active to monitor the progress of the second golf course planning proposal.

For links to media coverage of the Coul Links saga, scroll to lower on this page.

NEWS FLASH - 17 May 2023 - The Highland Council Planning website has published the Consultation Response from The Highland Council Ecology Officer (dated 16 May). "We object to the proposed development due to insufficient current ecological information to allow a robust assessment of the ecological resources of the site and associated impacts." And: "We also object to the proposal as it is contrary to National Planning Framework 4 Policy 3b that states 'Development proposals for national or major development, or for development that requires an Environmental Impact assessment will only be supported where it can be demonstrated that the proposal will conserve, restore and enhance biodiversity, including nature networks so they are in a demonstrably better state than without intervention'".

NEWS FLASH - 12 May 2023 - The week finishes with 1,045 public comments published on the Highland Council Planning website - 726 objections, 311 support comments. 70% against the current golf course plan, 30% in favour.

NEWS FLASH - 10 May 2023 - The previous admirable positivity of the Communities4Coul Facebook messaging seems to have lost discipline as their story has lurched to a focus on the objectors. As they loudly announce, objectors NotCoul have distributed a news-sheet to homes in Dornoch, Embo, Brora and Golspie. And, unhelpfully for the golf project, as the C4C tone becomes more confrontational, the first planning application's more toxic and discredited support has resurfaced.

NEWS FLASH - 5 May 2023 - NatureScot comment published on Highland Council planning website. "We therefore object to this proposal as it will result in unavoidable adverse effects on natural heritage interests of national importance." "If the planning authority intends to grant planning permission against this advice, you must notify Scottish Ministers."

So the Highland councillors on the North Planning Applications Committee will have to decide whether they yet again burden taxpayers with the expense of kicking this can down the road to Scottish Ministers.

NEWS FLASH - 4 May 2023 - Of 986 public comments so far published on the Highland Council Planning website, 669 (67.8%) are objections. In a Northern Times article of 1 May, Communities for Coul prefer to zoom in on the local area, claiming that 129 support comments have been submitted by people from Dornoch Firth communities - "The figures clearly show a genuine enthusiasm locally for our plans". This "genuine enthusiasm" represents a retreat from the always incredible claims of "unequivocal support" claimed in the communities4coul.scot website. 129 supporters make up less than 2% of voters in Dornoch Firth communities - not a great return on the Communities for Coul spend on door drops to every address, press ads and online encouragement all instructing local people on how to submit their support.

NEWS FLASH - 4 May 2023 - At a presentation to a public meeting organised by Dornoch Community Council, Community for Coul's environmental consultant Dr McMullen suggested that the combined expertise of RSPB Scotland, The National Trust for Scotland, The Scottish Wildlife Trust, Plantlife, Buglife, The Marine Conservation Society and Butterfly Conservation might be of less value to an assessment of Coul Links than his personal expertise. Surprisingly, at the Public Local Inquiry into the first Coul Links golf course proposal, Dr McMullen failed to present a sufficiently persuasive case for the environmental benefits of a golf course cut through a SSSI. 

NEWS FLASH - 20 April 2023 - Would-be Coul Links golf developer Mike Keiser's plans for ownership of a Highland Coast golf destination gradually emerge into the daylight. In a support comment submitted to Highland Council Planning published today, the owner of Pitcalzean Farm, Nigg, a site subject to a planning application for a golf course in 2021, reveals that Mr Keiser was the developer behind that application. The likelihood of Mr Keiser's invovement was flagged-up in our news story of 25 April 2021 (see News Archive). The Nigg application was sadly stymied by zoning problems - the site would have hosted a dramatically good golf course.

With the acquisition of Castle Stuart, the rebranding as Cabot Highlands and the addition of a second course, Mr Keiser has the first piece of his golf destination in place. Proximity to Royal Dornoch, a legendary influence in Keiser folk-lore, provides the credibility and tradition for the marketing. More pieces are needed to provide critical mass - with Nigg having disappointed, a Coore & Crenshaw course at Coul Links starts to look like a necessity.

The question is then, "Where next?". The pitch to the existing, long-established, local golf clubs is that Coul Links will bring enhanced visitor revenue for neighbouring clubs. It is very easy to see quite the opposite happening. Visiting golfers drawn by Royal Dornoch play their second round, or second day's golf, at Coul Links rather than at Brora or Tain. With much reduced visitor revenue, those existing clubs become non-viable. Some high quality, historically interesting golf real estate becomes available at a knock-down price and Mr Keiser has control of his golf destination.

And Keiser destinations are funded by accommodation - local providers are left to pick up the crumbs. As the Cabot Highlands General Manager said, "you're coming back, eating our food, sleeping in our beds, and drinking our wine. It's masterful".

NEWS FLASH - 15 April 2023 - The Highland Council planning website now gives a new Standard Consultation Expiry Date of 12 May (moved from 9 April) which suggests that there is more time for the public to send comments of support or objection. The Highland Council Ecology Team has been added to the list of consultees.

NEWS FLASH - 30 March 2023 - After engaging with the developer prior to the Coul Links golf course planning application, a 'Conservation Coalition' of seven environmental organisations - Buglife, Butterfly Conservation, Plantlife, Marine Conservation Society, The National Trust for Scotland, RSPB Scotland, Scottish Wildlife Trust - has re-entered the debate, calling for the public's help again to save Coul Links. https://www.buglife.org.uk/news/conservation-coalition-calls-for-publics-help-again-to-save-coul-links/    https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/b/scotland/posts/save-coul-links-why-we-will-be-objecting-again

Meanwhile, planning applicant Communities for Coul has distributed a 4 page printed brochure, "Coul Times" to local addresses calling for support comments to The Highland Council. https://www.communities4coul.scot/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Copy-of-Digital-or-Traditional-Tabloid-Template-%E2%80%93-289mm-x-380mm.pdf

NEWS FLASH - 20 March 2023 - Quoted in an article in Links Magazine, Cabot Highlands (was Castle Stuart) General Manager Stuart McColm said "If you're staying with us for the week, a five-night stay, you're going to play the two courses at least once. You're also going to play Nairn, Dornoch, Fortrose, Brora, and others potentially. We want to take control of all of that. You stay with us and, and if you want to go for a tee time at Dornoch, we'll take you and pick you up. Because you're coming back, eating our food, sleeping in our beds, and drinking our wine. It's masterful". Cabot is associated with prospective Coul Links developer Mike Keiser.

NEWS FLASH - 17 March 2023 - Very contrasting public comments listed today in the Highland Council planning portal. The certainty of an "era of some prosperity" from Councillor McGillivray https://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=neighbourComments&keyVal=RPM8MCIHGB800 and a more forensic assessment from Peter Batten and Denise Lloyd https://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/files/8A5AE85983B4AEE3C89F54ECB533AEE5/pdf/23_00580_FUL-Peter_Batten___Denise_Lloyd-2975655.pdf

NEWS FLASH - 17 March 2023 - A number of local and national media outlets have picked up the story of renewed opposition from Ramblers Scotland to the Coul Links golf plan. The organisation has a petition live at www.ramblers.org.uk/coullinks 

NEWS FLASH - 10 March 2023 - The Highland Council has placed a notice in The Northern Times announcing the planning application for a golf course at Coul Links. Comments supporting or opposed to the golf course have to be submitted within 28 days of the publication date. Representations can be made online at http://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/ (application reference 23/00580/FUL) or by writing to The Head of Planning and Building Standards, ePlanning Centre, The Highland Council, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness, IV3 5NX. (See notice in Documents section below.)

NEWS FLASH - 1 March 2023 - A planning application for a golf course and accompanying infrastructure at Coul Links was validated by The Highland Council on 28 February. Details and all documents submitted to date are available at https://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/ with the reference 23/00580/FUL.

NEWS FLASH - 22 February 2023 - The Highland Council has granted planning consent for the first phase of a hotel at Coul Links. See https://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=QTTOG0IHIR700&activeTab=summary 

The Northern Times reports that "Edward Abel Smith, who owns the site and heads Coul Enterprises, the company behind the ambitious luxury eco hotel initiative, has said the project is entirely reliant on planning permission being granted for the golf course". (The planning application was made by agents on behalf of Mr Abel Smith who is not listed with Companies House as a director of Coul Enterprises Limited.) The applicant has declared that hotel and golf course are linked applications. So, with the golf course application yet to be validated, it seems strange that the hotel application has been granted so soon.

NEWS FLASH - 9 February 2023 - Via a Northern Times article published at 11.27, Communities for Coul announces submission to The Highland Coucil of a planning application for a golf course at Coul Links. A C4C post at 13.32 confirms the submission. The text published by The Northern Times is reproduced in other media outlets (see links below). It is suggested that mowing the vegetation/habitats within a Site of Special Scientific Interest down to 15-25mm does not constitute development and is somehow beneficial to the natural environment. Good news for SSSIs everywhere.

The planning application lands as The Scottish Government is due, next week, to adopt National Planning Framework 4. NPF4 is intended to answer questions such as, "how can planning best support our quality of life, health and wellbeing in the future? (by building golf courses for wealthy American tourists) and "what policies are needed to improve, protect and strengthen the special character of our places? (golf courses to be built on Special Protection Areas, Ramsar sites and Sites of Special Scientific Interest).

Rather confusingly the Communities for Coul "Planning Latest" web page reports that the "formal Planning Application" was submitted on 3rd September. Two paragraphs later it states that "we were free to submit our formal application" only after a consultation period that ended on 11th September.

Coul Links golf course current proposal

Also see News Archive. The company fronting the proposal has an online presence at  https://www.communities4coul.scot and https://www.facebook.com/Communities4Coul/ For an alternative reading visit https://notcoul.org and https://www.facebook.com/groups/266150027087512/?mibextid=HsNCOg

After a local councillor made a shambolic attempt to resurrect the original golf course scheme, with added par 3 course, in Autumn 2020, a more concerted effort to relaunch the project surfaced in January 2021 with the publication of https://www.communities4coul.scot. Communities for Coul, a private limited company registered in Scotland, suggests that Brexit and Covid have changed the economic climate to such an extent that the benefits will outweigh any environmental concerns and further that the new golf course proposal “is now an environmental project with a golf course at its heart".

A week later the owner of Coul Farm announced his intention to build a hotel overlooking the links – construction to be started when the golf course receives planning approval.

In April 2021, Communities for Coul announced that Mike Keiser, the developer behind the original golf course plan, had been “selected” to build the revived golf course, funding the project should planning consent be granted.

Communities for Coul proceeded to stage a postal ballot and series of tightly managed online question and answer sessions to establish a narrative of consultation and public support. Meanwhile The Scottish Government’s Dynamic Coast project mapped areas of coastal flooding where the golf course is to be routed and forecast that the dune edge would retreat inland by up to 93 metres this century. Meanwhile Foveran Links in Aberdeenshire, home to Trump International Scotland golf course, of which Donald Trump said “this will be environmentally better after it is built than it is before”, lost its Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) status due to irreparable damage - extravagant promises of local jobs have never materialised. Parallels will inevitably be drawn.

Having declared that the original layout was the only one available at Coul Farm for a “world-class” golf course, Coore and Crenshaw have made modifications to their routing to make small concessions to specific environmental concerns and adopted the mowing of existing vegetation to create fairways. 

A scoping application was submitted to The Highland Council in March 2022 with the aim to “file a planning application in 2022 and start work on the project in 2023”. Communities for Coul appealed for £150,000 of crowdfunding to meet the costs of expert support (a target reportedly reached on 26 September 2022). A Proposal of Planning Application Notice (PAN) was submitted on 19 June 2022.

Also in June, Cabot, a company associated with Mike Keiser, acquired Castle Stuart golf course near Inverness, renaming it Cabot Highlands and announcing plans for a second course and accommodation on site. Communities for Coul published the opinion that its chosen developer’s plans for Cabot Highlands would have “a significant negative economic impact on the towns and villages of the Dornoch Firth” so Coul Links, from the same developer, was needed as a counterbalance to prevent “very bad news”.

The aim to submit a planning application for Coul Links in 2022 was not met. However, with Cabot Highlands, Mike Keiser has put the first piece in place for a new Highland golf coast destination - as the Cabot Highlands' website https://cabothighlands.com depicts it, "Cabot's first UK property in its diverse collection of world-class golf and master-planned communities". Communities for Coul, a limited company perhaps misleadingly referred to in press coverage as a "community group', announced on 9 February 2023 that a planning application for Coul Links has been submitted. The deadline for public comments on the application is 12 May 2023.

There are two online petitions to "Save Coul Links". One is still live from the first planning application and currently has attracted more than 93,400 signatures https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/conserve-coul-links-for-nature-not-golf-1  The second is specific to the new planning application  and has already gained more than 24,000 signatures towards its 25,000 target https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-coul-links-protected-nature-from-destructive-deja-vu-golf-course-1