Following our evidence session yesterday one of the local papers reports that a spokesperson for Trump International demanded that the Scottish Wildlife Trust witness should resign - apparently because he had taken a 'narrow view of the inquiry process and how democracy works'. Needless to say the individual in question has considerably more experience of both the Scottish inquiry system and the Scottish Parliament than the spokesperson in question and I can confidently predict won't be resigning any time soon.
The issue of democracy and the planning system seemed to be the theme for the day. Following some fairly straight forward evidence from the Ramblers and local access groups it was the turn of the group of four Councillors who are presenting their case separately from Aberdeenshire Council. All four were members of the council committee which finally rejected the application, including the Chairman - Martin Ford.
The cross examination of Mr Ford by the Trump International advocate was not pretty and not particularly pleasant. At least not for the advocate. Rather than an examination of the evidence it felt more like a personal attack on an individual who very clearly explained why he had used his casting vote to reject a planning application that was contrary to Council policy. Fortunately Mr Ford seems to be very capable of handling such situations and continued to provide robust responses despite repeated attemps by both the applicant and the Council to ask him about the procedures that were followed (in the face of several interventions from the Reporters saying this was an inappropriate and unnecessary line of questioning).
He made it clear that the the application had been rejected because of the environmental damage and because the applicant had refused to negotiate or compromise, particularly when solutions were available that would allow some development with a reduced level of environmental harm.
We're nearing the end of things now with just a few more witnesses, a site visit and closing submissions to go. I'll be surprised if we get away without a few more demands being issued. With witnesses being told to resign their jobs and Ministers being told to not to bother issuing a consent unless it includes the SSSI land I suppose we should be grateful for the clarity. I think we'll all be pleased when it's over.