Plans to build a golf course designed by the legendary former player Jack Nicklaus could be bunkered by a string of objections from government agencies.
The FM Group is behind the £80 million project to transform the Ury Estate at Stonehaven, with housing, a boutique hotel and the championship golf course in the pipeline.
But the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), Historic Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Forestry Commission Scotland are just some of the bodies to raise concerns about the course.
Aberdeenshire Council’s flooding team has also recommended the project be thrown out.
The developer already has permission to build 230 homes on the Mearns estate and this week work started to restore the B-listed Ury House to its former glory by turning it into a hotel.
If the final phase of the project the golf course gets consent from Aberdeenshire Council, the completed development could boost the economy by £55.5 million and create 200 jobs.
But the developers will first have to convince councillors to see past the objections, which raise issues ranging from flooding to the impact on wildlife and the nearby 140-year-old woodland.
Claire Pritchett, senior planning officer for Sepa, warns in her objection that the golf course plans “may place buildings and persons at flood risk”, adding much of the landscape is on the flood plain of the Ury Burn and the Cowie.
Historic Scotland has objected on the basis that there is no mention of the impact the development may have on the Cowie Line monument near Ury House. The structure was a field defence near the Cowie Water made up of two pill boxes used during the Second World War.
A spokeswoman for FM Group said the developer is working hard to address all the concerns.