News

Snail Trumps golf course ambitions

AMERICAN billionaire businessman Donald Trump's plans to re-develop his luxury hotel and golf course in Co Clare have been stopped in their tracks - by an endangered species of tiny snail.

Trump, who last year shelled out around €15m for The Lodge at Doonbeg and renamed it Trump International Golf Links & Hotel Ireland, had lodged plans with Clare County Council to re-profile sand dunes at the resort, along with adding sandtrap fencing and marram grass to help prevent them being washed away by inclement weather.

However, the plans have now been crushed as a result of council-raised concerns about their impact on the Carrowmore dunes and the tiny Vertigo angustior snails that live in the sands of this EU-designated Special Area of Conservation.

Last year, Clare County Council had asked Trump for more details on the effects of his proposed erosion protection system on the dunes and their microscopic natives.

However, the US tycoon has now chosen to withdraw the plans rather than respond to their request and is said to be formulating a different coastal defence plan instead.

"After carefully studying the coastline, we intend on submitting a more comprehensive plan that will better protect the site," a spokesman for Trump said.

The property magnate fell foul of Clare County Council last year after importing giant 'rock armour' boulders onto the site without their permission.

Trump's plans for a coastal protection system at the former Doonbeg site were inspired by a 2013 storm which, according to Trump, caused "millions" worth of damage to the resort and rendered its golf course unplayable.