National Trust legal action over NI golf course

The National Trust has announced it will go to court to contest the planning permission granted for a £100million golf resort on the north coast of Northern Ireland.

The National Trust believes the site on which the golf course and hotel complex is to be built on is land zoned by UNESCO, the body responsible for World Heritage designations, as "distinctive landscape .. in which no development should take place". The charity said it will pursue legal action so that the decision to approve the planning application is given the "fullest possible consideration".

The announcement has however caused outrage in some quarters, with North Antrim MP Ian Paisley Jnr calling it a "spiteful" delay tactic, to further stall what has been one of Northern Ireland's longest planning disputes. He also commented that the charity itself had built a tourist centre, hotel and "money spinning car park .. on the same world heritage site."

The proposed Bushmills Dunes Golf Resort and Spa would create 360 new jobs in the area.