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 little 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. (A number of the links provided have become obsolete as interested parties have become inactive in the months since Scottish Ministers refused planning permission for the proposed golf course at Coul Links.)

NEWS FLASH - 25th March 2021 - The Press & Journal reports that a scoping request to The Highland Council is imminent for a golf course on the site of the historic Castlecraig Golf Club at Nigg. Though it is a rare Scottish example of a 'climbing dune' system, the site has no major environmental designations so the hurdle to overcome will be the current zoning of some of the land for industrial/storage use rather than the extreme sensitivity to environmental damage present at Coul Links. 

NEWS FLASH - 24th March 2021 - On 22nd March, the eve of the anniversary of a fire on Coul Links and the day that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service announced it was escalating its wildfire warning from "very high risk" to "extreme risk", Invergordon Fire Station tweeted that one of its tenders had been called to a wildfire at the north end of Coul Links. The Fire and Rescue Service reported that "an area of grass approximately 1,000 square metres was burnt by the fire which is an area of special scientific interest".

NEWS FLASH - 5th February 2021 - The Press & Journal reports that Communities for Coul has reached an agreement with the owner of Coul Farm for the land to be leased to the community long-term, for a peppercorn rent, should (planning) permission be granted. It is unclear what is referred to by "the community". Communities for Coul is a private limited company.

NEWS FLASH - 28th January 2021 - The Press & Journal announces imminent plannng application for first phase of hotel from Coul Farm owner Edward Abel Smith. See news below.

NEWS FLASH - 22nd January 2021 - The Northern Times reports the formation of Communities for Coul, a group seeking to revive the failed Coul Links golf course plan, this time with the addition of an "eco lodge-style hotel". 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 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. 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

18 February 2021

In its weekly email, From the Manager's Office, circulated on 12 February, Brora Golf Club, through the club President, declared that it will be supporting the Coul Links development. This decision was reached "after a discussion amongst committee" (presumably minuted given that they are advocating the creation of what could well be a direct competitor rather than the "catalyst" touted by the previous developers). Club President Andy Stewart is also a director of Communities for Coul Limited. He brushes aside the high potential for a conflict of interests by simply stating that "everyone is aware of my dual role".

On 17 February, Brora Golf Club added a news page titled "Brora support for new Coul Links plans" to its website. (see link lower on page)  

17 February 2021

By special resolution dated 20 January 2021, Communities for Coul Limited deleted its original articles of association and replaced them with a revised version. The new articles state that the company is not for profit and that the objects of the company are to carry on activities which benefit "the community". Specifcally, but not exclusively, this benefit will be the creation of local jobs through the construction of a golf course at Coul Links.

2 February 2021

On 30 January, golf course within Coul Links opposition group Not Coul released a statement via Facebook concerning the groundless complaint to CIEEM (see news 23 January) designed to discredit Not Coul Chair Dr Tom Dargie. https://www.facebook.com/groups/266150027087512/

The complainant has responded via Twitter claiming that "my opinion was NOT judged as wrong" and that CIEEM operated a "very one sided process" (he also suggests that "Dr Dargie should respect the process").

28 January 2021

The Press & Journal is chosen by Coul Farm's owner to publicise his intention to build a hotel consisting of up to 20 lodges and a reception building at the farm overlooking the links. Mr Abel Smith is quoted as saying he "will be submitting a planning application for the first phase of the project imminently. However, we will not start any form of construction until Coul Links Golf Course is approved".

Mr Abel Smith describes the lodges, (the first phase will be 4 bedroom units), as "unobtrusive". The Press & Journal decribes the project as "A £20 million eco hotel" though Mr Abel Smith uses the term "eco-style", perhaps mindful that the credentials of an "eco" hotel might be somewhat compromised by the fact that a golf course in the dunes at Coul Links, on which the hotel would depend for guests, has been recognised at Public Inquiry as likely to cause permanent damage to a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The announcement of the hotel plan might help to explain the protracted nature of discussions NatureScot has had in reaching agreement with Mr Abel Smith on a management regime to protect the SSSI land in his ownership. Presumably Mr Abel Smith has kept NatureScot informed of his plans for a hotel, as it might create issues of drainage into the SSSI, and of the fact that the hotel is contingent upon the building of a golf course at Coul Links. A golf course now coincidentally proposed by Communities for Coul. Perhaps Mr Abel Smith and NatureScot will reach a management agreement that will be implemented until literally bulldozed in favour of a golf course. How much of NatureScot's time, and therefore taxpayers' money, has been wasted? 

The Chairman of Communities for Coul is reported as saying that the eco hotel plan boosts the campaign for the golf course. 

23 January 2021

On 6 September 2020, The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) received a complaint leveled against its member Dr Tom Dargie, one of the co-ordinators of NotCoul and lead on the Sand Dune Vegetation Survey of Scotland 1994-2000: National Report.

The complainant, from Dornoch, accused Dr Dargie of "Lack of judgement. Lack of objectivity. Serious gaps in knowledge. Lack of expertise when claiming otherwise. Little if any reflection when proven wrong." And claimed that "The result of the Inquiry is not relevant to my complaint, I simply wish to focus on the behaviour and actions of Dr Dargie relative to the CIEEM Code during the period under review" (2016-2020). The complainant included more than 100 individual instances of alleged misconduct.

On 8 December, The Preliminary Investigation Panel of the Professional Standards Committee of CIEEM delivered the finding that the investigation had found no evidence to suggest that Dr Dargie had breached the Code of Professional Conduct "and, in particular, no evidence of a lack of professional judgement or an absence of professional integrity". Not a single claim of alleged misconduct was found to be credible.

The complainant appealed. On 11 January 2021 the Panel found the appeal to be groundless, "the Panel independently and unanimously concluded that there was no new evidence on which to base an appeal". Total exoneration.

During the debate of the original golf course proposal including at Public inquiry, Dr Dargie's professional reputation was the target of sustained sniping. This complaint to a professional body sinks lower still. Most charitably this formal complaint might be viewed as a vexatious swipe from a sore loser. In the light of recent developments, it flirts with being seen as a cynical attempt to remove Dr Dargie from the field prior to a revived campaign to site a golf course within the SSSI at Coul Links.

22 January 2021

At https://www.communities4coul.scot a group of East Sutherland and Ross-Shire individuals serving as directors of Communities for Coul Limited (a private limited company incorporated on 18 January 2021) present a case for a golf course at Coul Links very similar to that explored at Public Inquiry with an amplified call for jobs for the young and much made of the deprivations caused by Covid19. That the pandemic, like terrorism in the past, has shown in stark relief the economic vulnerability created by a reliance on golf tourism is ignored.

Possibly the original developers strongest argument, that a Keiser/Coore/Crenshaw golf course piggybacking on the reputation of neighbouring Royal Dornoch Golf Club would build a viable golf tourism destination, is now abandoned. Is an invitation to tender aimed at "developers with the skill and sensitivity to create the world class golf course this special site warrants" going to convince as a cast-iron marketing certainty?

This re-skinned plan from Communities for Coul perhaps misses the pointers delivered by The Reporters and by Scottish Ministers. In the right hands, a brilliant, environmentally sensitive and marketable golf course at Coul Farm would be an asset to the local economy. As success would depend on attracting golf visitors away from other Scottish golf tourism hubs, a golf course at Coul may be of local economic benefit but could not be considered of national economic importance so would fail to overcome the restrictions placed on development within a site with the environmental protections Coul Links enjoys.

Have Covid/Brexit convincingly shifted the weight of economic advantage to outweigh the established environmental damage inherent in a golf course at Coul Links? If not, perhaps Communities for Coul might profitably depart from the insistence of Bill Coore that the course sits in the dunes or it sits nowhere. If a creatively marketed golf course on the slopes of Coul Farm were to be positioned as an ecologically harmonious neighbour to a visitor-friendly nature reserve within the SSSI, the year round influx of visitors to the area would dillute the current seasonality, be more diverse in demographic, interests and spend and be less vulnerable to international circumstance. The cause of more, better and reliable jobs for local young people deserves far more original thought to realise the potential of Coul than "let's repackage building on the dunes" again. 

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.