Ministers urged to step in and save Coul Links - Butterfly Conservation

Highland Council votes to grant permission for golf course development despite overwhelming opposition.

The fate of one of Scotland’s important and last remaining undeveloped dune systems, home to a variety of rare butterfly and moth species, now lies in the hands of Scottish Ministers after Highland Council’s North Planning Applications Committee voted to grant permission for an 18-hole golf course development on the nationally and internationally protected site for nature.

Councillors voted by eight in favour, six against to allow the plans by developer C4C for Coul Links, near Embo in East Sutherland, against the advice of Highland Council’s own planning officers, and in the face of almost 750 objections including from statutory consultee NatureScot, Scottish Government’s advisers on nature.

Serious concerns have been raised about the wide-ranging impact the golf course would have on the protected sites and nature found within it, including one of the largest colonies of Northern Brown Argus butterfly in the UK, but these were not seen as important enough by a majority of Councillors on the Planning Committee to refuse the plans.

The Conservation Coalition is extremely disappointed and very concerned by Highland Council’s decision to grant permission for the plans and is now calling on Scottish Ministers to step in to save Coul Links from development.