Last week at the PLI it emerged that Trump and the Council were proposing a deal whereby the Council provided land and Trump build 98 affordable plus get to build and sell an extra 52 open market houses at Balmedie. Great you’d think - we need affordable housing in this area.

But there are two problems with the proposal.

First the Council sold the site proposed to Castlemill Housing Association in April 2007 specifically for 150 affordable houses as part of a large package. So regardless of whether the Trump development goes ahead or not, the site is already earmarked for affordable houses. With the land in its ownership Castlemill can get grants and borrow to develop the land.

Second, while part of the site sold to Castlemill is allocated as a site for 25 houses, the remainder of the site is not yet allocated in the Local Plan. It is merely marked as an area of search for allocation for 2011-2015. No decision has yet been made to allocate this land for houses - the deal proposed collapses if it is not.

The site is just south of the Chapelwell development at the south of Balmedie.

The deal with Trump only emerged last week at the PLI. Normally councillors do not see the details of affordable houses contribution and other element of “planning gain” for housing developments but the rules at PLIs and for Ministers are different so this became public last week.

The requirement in the Local Plan is to aim at 35% affordable housing across the area. 35% of 500 houses is 175 houses. Are we getting the best deal for Aberdeenshire that we can? I don’t think so.