Coul Links (golf or not)

This website aims to collect and provide links to items appearing on the internet that concern Coul Links just to the north of Embo, Dornoch on the east coast of Sutherland in Scotland and the proposal to site a golf course on that dune land. There is no editorial input beyond the brief description and now extensive timeline below (and in the news archive) and our efficiency, or otherwise, in locating and correctly labelling relevant links.

NEWS FLASH - 11th September 2020 - A second planning application has been heralded by a screening request submitted for a golf course remarkably similar to the first one refused by Scottish Ministers. See news below.

After The Highland Council approved the planning application for a golf course 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 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. That there is not a golf course at Coul may be due in no small part to the intransigence of the course designers or to the quality of the advice they received.

If the news updates have sometimes read as being critical, it is no more than simple frustration with the demise of communication with the public from the would-be developers and their failure to submit documents within the deadlines set by the Public Inquiry. We hope that this website has served to help people make an informed decision on support for or opposition to a golf course on Coul Links.

coullinksgolf.com will 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.  

NEWS

20 October 2020

The Northern Times reports that The Highland Council Planning Team Leader has sent an email to Councillor McGillivray alerting him to discretionary powers available to the planning authority to refuse to deal with an application when a similar application has been refused permission within the previous two years and there has been no significant change to the relevant parts of the development plan since that decision.

The Northern Times quotes the email, "Having discussed the details of the proposal as noted in the screening request with our solicitor, I must advise that the planning authority would be in a position to consider use of such discretionary powers should an application be submitted within two years of the date of the previous application being refused by Scottish Ministers in February 2020."

16 October 2020

In a self-penned article published in The Northern Times on 9th October (no link available), Councillor McGillivray confirms that he "recently revived the Embo Junior Football and Athletic Cub (EJFAC), dormant for many years" and that "It has provided an initial vehicle to open up the discussion on Coul Links". The councillor submitted the screening request to the planning office naming the applicant as EJFAC.

There appears to be no requirement for The Highland Council to verify the legal status, or the existence beyond a name on a form, of an applicant making a screening request. Having, in his declared role as Chairman, signed the request on behalf of the club it might provide some confirmation of the club's credentials if the chairmanship of Embo Junior Football & Athletic Club were to be recorded in the councillor's register of interests. This current omission shouldn't be problematic if the club were to confine itself to acquiring floodlighting for junior sporting activities in Embo but isn't ideal if the chairman involves the club in the pe-submission screening process for a multi-million pound golf development. Doubtless updating the register takes time. Councillor McGillivray's chairmanship of Embo Trust (involved in the first Coul Links golf course planning application) is still recorded in his register of interests though he resigned in January 2020. After more than twelve years as a director, his resignation went unremarked in The Embo Trust public Facebook presence.    

2 October 2020

The Northern Times reports Councillor McGillivray as saying, "I have had no personal contact with the original American investors since the spring and have no idea if they are still interested in funding any part of any Coul Links development". This begs the question by whose permission did Councillor McGillivray use the design work of Coore & Crenshaw in his screening request?

The same Northern Times article https://www.northern-times.co.uk/news/coul-links-course-in-the-frame-again-213744/ also reports Councillor McGillivray saying that the Embo Junior Football and Athletic Club (EJFAC) had been dormant for a considerable time but was being used "to provide an initial vehicle to open up the discussion on Coul Links". It must be assumed that the current management committee of this long-dormant club has sanctioned the involvement of their junior football and athletic club in what has the clear potential to be a contentious, lengthy, expensive and, if the conduct of the first Coul Links golf course proposal is repeated, acrimonious planning process.

Although EJFAC has been dormant, Chairman McGillivray has been able to satisfy The Highland Council that the club is a legal entity, perhaps incorporated, eligible to make a screening request. The identity of the community groups that will later pick up the baton to submit a planning application is still to be revealed.

30 September 2020

On 25th September (published 30th September) The Highland Council Principal Planner delivered the screening opinion, in response to the screening request, that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is required for the development described.

As it would be risky to rely on a cut and paste from the EIA prepared for the first Coul Links golf course application, one that failed to convince at Public Inquiry, the community groups intending to submit a new application for the site face potentially considerable costs to prepare the required EIA for what inevitably will be a controversial project. 

30 September 2020

A petition opposing the second golf course proposal has been launched at https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-coul-links-protected-nature-from-destructive-deja-vu-golf-course-1 9,564 signatures were collected in the first 48 hours of the petition going live.

The most visible of the online petitions opposing the original golf course proposal attracted in excess of 92,000 signatures. For comparison, an online petition supporting the first golf course proposal mustered 606 signatures in total.

24 September 2020

A location plan for a 14 hole par three golf course has been added to the documents supporting the new screening request. Will yet more of the dune system laid to turf prove persuasive? In its initial EIA screening response, NatureScot summarises "We advise there will be significant effects on the environment from this development. In its current form, we are likely to object to this proposal as it will undermine the integrity of Loch Fleet SSSI".

 11 September 2020

On 26th July a screening request presaging a planning application was submitted to The Highland Council (validated on 4th September) for a golf course and attendant infrastructure at Coul Links. https://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=QE8IQ6IH0HZ00 At the core of this potential application is the same golf layout, over the same ground, wreaking the same damage as the one found unacceptable at public inquiry. Now it is proposed to add a par 3 course though a layout for this is not detailed.

The request was made in the name of Embo Junior Football & Athletic Club by its chairman Councillor Jim McGillivray. The request states that "Should this application be proposed it will be submitted by a consortium of community groups (unnamed) local to the East Sutherland region." Balancing the local involvement aspect that might play well with The Highland Council with the national interest case vital to influence Scottish Ministers will be a challenge. Is the economic case for a golf course fronted by Councillor McGillivray as convincing as the case for a golf course associated with the marketing and public relations might of Mike Keiser? A case that was outweighed by the inevitable damage to an internationally recognised site of environmental importance.

Can The Highland Council find sufficient merit in this further proposal that would cause The Scottish Government to backtrack on its view that "Reporters have concluded that the harmful impacts of this development to protected habitats and species would outweigh the potential socio-economic benefits.

“This proposal does not comply with the relevant provisions of the Highland Wide Local Development Plan and runs contrary to Scottish planning policy’s emphasis on protecting natural heritage sites and world class environmental assets"?

9 April 2020

The applicant chose not to appeal the Ministers' decision to refuse permission for a golf course by the deadline last Friday.

The local golfing infrastructure that the applicant sought to enhance is currently facing a crisis as the visitor revenue on which Brora, Tain and Golspie golf clubs depend is severed by the impact of Coronavirus-Covid-19. These historic golf courses may struggle to survive.

4 April 2020

On 23rd March a fire destroyed a significant area of vegetation on Coul Links. Not Coul reports that the burn area covered 8.5ha and that the largest part of the Coul Northern Brown Argus butterfly population has been severely affected. See https://www.facebook.com/groups/266150027087512 and final image in gallery page.

27 February 2020

The would-be developers of the golf course at Coul Links publish a statement via The Northern Times claiming that the decision to refuse to allow the project to go ahead was politically motivated.

25 February 2020

Golfweek reports Mike Keiser as saying, "I'm moving on. I have many other projects".

25 February 2020

"If ever a place encapsulates sheer degenerative despair in a single miserable and depressing landscape it must be Coul Links." Opening with an understated appreciation of the unique, species-rich dune system on his doorstep, golf course advocate Highland Councillor Jim McGillivray, (East Sutherland and Edderton), has written to John Finnie MSP to "propose the immediate establishment of the Coul Links Action Plan (CLAP)". Referring to SNH, RSPB, Scottish Wildlife Trust, The National Trust for Scotland, Buglife, Plantlife and Scottish Walkers, he suggests that "now is not the time for people such as these to inflict great economic damage and then slither south in exultation".

Councillor McGillivray neglects to mention whether he has sought approval for his CLAP scheme from the owner of the miserable and depressing landscape.

21 February 2020

Planning permission for the application to build a golf course on Coul Links has now been formally REFUSED by Scottish Ministers.

The decision letter can be viewed at https://www.gov.scot/publications/planning-decision-na-hld-086/

Planning Minister Kevin Stewart said: “Reporters have concluded that the harmful impacts of this development to protected habitats and species would outweigh the potential socio-economic benefits.

“This proposal does not comply with the relevant provisions of the Highland Wide Local Development Plan and runs contrary to Scottish planning policy’s emphasis on protecting natural heritage sites and world class environmental assets.

“The Scottish Government has considered the reporter’s findings carefully and agree with the recommendation that planning permission should be refused.”

The would-be developers have withdrawn their website and social media presence.

28 November 2019

The DPEA today sumbitted its report for the consideration of Scottish Ministers. (Pdf of report can be found at the foot of this section.)

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). The planning submission, consultee responses and public comment that can be found on The Highland Council planning website very possibly constitute a more reliable source of facts than does the media coverage listed in the lower part of this page.

Coul Links 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. 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, Special Area of Conservation and Site of Special Scientific Interest). In addition, there are recorded archaeological remains and the archaeological potential of the site is high".

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 

A planning application reference 17/04601/FUL for "Development of 18 hole golf course, erection of clubhouse, renovation of existing buildings for maintenance facility, pro-shop, caddy hut, workshop, administration building, information booth, formation of new private access from C1026" was lodged with The Highland Council on 29th September 2017 by Coul Links Ltd. The application has a determination deadline of 28th January 2018. Supporting documents can be viewed at http://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=OX1OGYIHH0I00 The press release of 29th September heralding the application stated that "The golf course will be constructed in and outside the Loch Fleet Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) which currently extends to 1,232 hectares. After significant layout revisions as a result of public comment, the golf course will incorporate a total footprint of 22.7 hectares. As a result of careful planning, the course will include only a 14.0 hectare footprint inside the SSSI (1.1% of the total SSSI area) and 8.7 hectares outside".

After addendum to their submission were lodged with The Highland Council during March and April 2018, the fact that the developers do not plan to file any further documents was signalled by planning notices published in The Northern Times and Edinburgh Gazette on the 27th of April. These notices stipulate a 28 day period, from date of publication, for public comment.

The applicant, Coul Links Limited, was incorporated on 28th July 2016 with the company number SC541313, the nature of the business being "Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/SC541313/filing-history The certificate of incorporation lists the directors as Todd Warnock and Michael Keiser, all shares being held by Coul Links Holding Company LLC with a Delaware address. Mike Keiser is a golf resort developer (http://theworldlink.com/news/south-coast-strong/entrepreneurial-philanthropy-giving-with-purpose/article_085629c2-f968-5ff0-a416-0d1f9e99e92a.html), Todd Warnock has local hotel interests. The applicant's agent is STRI (Richard Stuttard, St. Ives Estate, Bingley, England, BD16 1AU, tel: 07912 578967, Richard.stuttard@stri.co.uk). The initial planning application reference 16/00053/SCRE dated 22nd December 2015 was submitted by Mike Keiser's Bandon Dunes Golf Resort (see http://wam.highland.gov.uk/wam/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=O0SCXUIH0EW00). A September 2015 fortune.com article profiling Mike Keiser characterised his blueprint for the development of golf resorts at Bandon Dunes, Oregon and Cabot Links, Novia Scotia as "transform wooly, under-utilized land in a picturesque and remote location into a bucket list golf destination that revitalizes a woebegone community". (http://fortune.com/2015/09/26/donald-trump-golf-keiser/) The architects appointed to design the course are Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw http://www.cooreandcrenshaw.com

Mike Keiser, Bill Coore and Todd Warnock started a blog dedicated to the project in May 2016 at https://coullinks.wordpress.com This blog has been dormant since 23rd July 2016. On 28th November 2017 their original website for the project www.coullinks.com was finally replaced having been idle for many months. Their live replacement (with blog) can be found at https://www.coullinks.co.uk The developers have consistently been more active in their communication via the golf media and local press, placing news of the impending revised planning application along with sympathetic quotes from local politicians and business interests. 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.

The potential developers first publicised their outline plans for building a golf course on Coul Links in late October 2015. On 6th July 2016 Bandon Dunes Golf Resort announced it had submitted a proposal of application notice (PAN) to The Highland Council. The PAN is formal notification of intention to submit a planning application, in this case for the development of an 18 hole championship links golf course, practice area, access arrangements, club house and ancillary facilities. Bandon Dunes Golf Resort hosted public consultation events presenting preliminary information on the proposed development in Dornoch and Embo on 13th July 2016. The support material presented at those meetings can be viewed at https://coullinks.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/coul-pullup-panels-final.pdf At that point the developers indicated their intention to submit a detailed planning application in December 2016/January 2017. The Highland Council planning committee meeting to examine the application is scheduled for 5th June 2018.

A second round of public consultation events took place at Dornoch on 30th August and Embo on 31st August 2016. The support material from these meetings is again available at the link above. A third round of public consultation events took place on 22nd/23rd October 2017. The developers reported that across the two October events 88% of attendee surveys returned were in favour of the proposals. In an interview with GolfAdvisor.com's Morning Drive spot on 28th September 2017 Bill Coore reported that the planning application would be lodged "in the next few days" after "two years of scientific studies". GolfAdvisor reported Mr Coore as saying that he wouldn't ... "have gone this far if he didn't know every public body, politician and local citizen was solidly behind the project".

At 9th April 2020 the 38degrees petition opposing the golf course had attracted 92,003 signatures, that supporting the golf course had 606 signatures when it closed in early January 2018. The Care2 petition opposing the golf course had 2,038 signatures. Of the 2,318 public comments lodged with The Highland Council, those objecting to the golf course planning application outnumbered supportive comments by a ratio of more than 5 to 1. The 348 public comments supporting the development number considerably fewer than the local residents eligible to be members of Embo Trust which stands to have a minor part share in the project: far from an expression of the overwhelming local support boasted by the developers. Objections were submitted by Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA modified its objection in late March and SNH in late May after the developers augmented their submission); both bodies had made recommendations to the developers over the months prior to the application.

A group of local citizens has launched a site dedicated to stopping the development on the protected dune area at www.notcoul.com (site no longer live at September 2020) presenting detailed and researched arguments against the submitted golf course plan. The NotCoul group position is one of opposition to a golf course within the SSSI protected dune area, not opposition to a golf course at Coul Farm. A pamphlet distributed locally by NotCoul prior to the second round of public events can be found at the foot of this page. The highly detailed NotCoul objection submitted to The Highland Council can be found at http://www.notcoul.com/objections.html. The developers have sought to discredit NotCoul and its Chair, dedicating a prominent page of their website to finding fault in the NotCoul comment document https://www.coullinks.co.uk/not-coul-not-correct. NotCoul has, in turn, published a forensic riposte at http://notcoul.com/rebuttals.html.

The Coul Links press release of 29th September 2017 states that "Importantly, the developers believe the Coul Links site will be environmentally enhanced, not degraded, as a result of the project" and that it will result in "significant economic benefit to the East Sutherland and national Scottish economy". (See press release below.) With parallels having been drawn, unfairly or otherwise, between Coul Links and Trump International Golf Links, the chronic drip of negative news coverage concerning the modification of environmental commitments and scope of development at the Aberdeenshire golf resort cannot be helpful to golf proposals at Coul Links. Mr Warnock, via blog and press, has sought to deflect any narrative of similarity to the Trump development with the claim that opposition to his proposals is fuelled by anti-American sentiment.

Online petitions for and against the original Coul Links golf course proposal could/can be found at:

Petition l Support for Coul Links golf course (no longer live as of January 2018)

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/support-for-coul-links-golf-course?source=twitter-share-button#

Petition l Save protected nature at Loch Fleet from golf development vandalism

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/conserve-coul-links-for-nature-not-golf-1

Petition l Tell Highland Council to refuse permission for a golf course on Coul Links, Embo

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/596/928/961/demand-that-todd-warnock-cancels-his-plans-to-build-a-golf-course-on-coul-links/

Petition l Save Fonseca's seed fly

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-fonesca-s-seed-fly

On 11th May 2017 representatives of a partnership of wildlife organisations hosted an event in Dornoch that examined the ecological implications of a golf course on Coul Links. The free event saw experts from RSPB Scotland, Butterfly Conservation Scotland and Buglife giving their organisations' perspectives on the irreparable damage to habitat and species that a golf course on the site would cause. Some dissent was voiced from the floor with the view expressed that the expertise of the specialists representing wildlife organisations was less credible than that of some of the local residents supporting the project. Todd Warnock attended the event in a private capacity.

Some of these issues are discussed in Dr Tom Dargie's letter to The Northern Times, dated 19th August 2016, (which can be found towards the foot of this page). Dr Dargie is responsible for The Sand Dune Vegetation Survey of Scotland published by Scottish Natural Heritage and is involved in the NotCoul group. His far from favourable working audit (19th October 2017) of Annex B: Ecology of the Environmental Statement submitted in support of the planning application can be found at http://nebula.wsimg.com/8735d9e855581da0c1543e50a7f97466?AccessKeyId=EDC827D8AD8BC3E385FC&disposition=0&alloworigin=1 and is expanded upon in the NotCoul comment to The Highland Council.

On 1st September 2016 John Finnie (msp Highlands and Islands) lodged three questions regarding Coul Links with The Scottish Parliament. These received answers from Kevin Stewart, Minister for Local Government and Housing on 20th September 2016.  http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Advance&MSPId=4947&SearchFor=AllQuestions&DateChoice=3&SortBy=DateSubmitted On 3rd November 2017 Mr Finnie lodged a motion with The Scottish Parliament (Motion S5M-08620 Coul Links) the final sentence of which closes, "... at a time when Brexit has caused considerable anxiety regarding environmental protections, granting permission for this development could send a dangerous message to developers that Scotland's highly protected sites are open to development at the expense of the environment."  http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Advance&ReferenceNumbers=S5M-08620&ResultsPerPage=10 On 17 November 2017 The Northern Times reported local councillor Jim McGillivray (East Sutherland and Edderton ward, also Director of Embo Trust which has a stake in the proposed golf course) as saying that "Mr Finnie is showing total disrespect to the point of contempt for the democratic planning system in the Highlands". His ward colleague councillor Deirdre Mackay is reported as saying "I take a pretty dim view of this high-handed attempt to circumvent the planning process" and describing the four signatories to the motion as "Green List MSPs located in the central belt with no locus whatsoever in our area".

The primacy of local opinion is a common theme in statements supportive of the golf course. On 16 November 2017, Andy Stewart, President of Brora Golf Club, wrote to all members of the club urging them to "visit the Highland Council website, as the opponents to Coul Links, most of whom are not from the area and in some cases, not even Scotland, have committed many signatures and we need to have our say on this matter". It might be noted that the developers are "not from the area", "not even from Scotland" and their prospects for gaining planning consent would be enhanced by a convincing argument that their scheme is of national not purely local benefit.