Mayor seeks to legalise most unauthorised golf resort works
Wednesday 2nd September 2026 on 21:30 in
Denmark
Ikast Brande Municipal Council is being asked to decide whether to legalise most of 15 construction works carried out without permission at Ikast Golf Club, DR reports. The golf club is being developed into a luxury resort by Jens Poulsen, one of Denmark’s richest men and the man behind fashion company DK Company.
The resort is planned to include 20 hotel rooms, a wellness area and fitness facilities.
In most cases, the club and developer moved earth or built roads, paths and greens without the required permits. The hilly landscape was shaped during the Ice Age and is among the municipality’s most valuable areas for preservation. It is also one of the landscapes the state wants to protect.
The municipality’s administration is prepared to grant exemptions and legalise eight of the 15 cases, but recommends rejecting the remaining seven. Mayor Ib Lauritsen of the Liberal Party believes the council can go further. He is willing to approve four of the seven cases the administration says lack a legal basis for approval.
One disputed case concerns a 350 metre road running up a slope and through section 3 protected heathland. The developer applied for permission for the road in December 2025, but was told it would probably not be approved because another route was available. The road has nevertheless been built as a temporary structure and the developer now wants to make it permanent.
Asked whether this could set a precedent that it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission, Lauritsen said it would have been preferable if the road had not been built and acknowledged that this was an aggravating circumstance. However, he said the council should consider whether it would have approved the road if it had not already been constructed.
Simon Vanggaard of the Danish People’s Party strongly disagrees. He called it the worst of the 15 cases and said it was strange for a mayor to support such a practice.
The municipality estimates that the terrain was altered by up to 12 metres to build the road. The full municipal council will decide the case on September 7.