Expert warns Ikast golf dispute could reach minister

DR reports that a golf course near Ikast changed an Ice Age landscape without obtaining all the required permissions. The municipal council must now decide whether to approve 15 disputed changes or require them to be corrected.

Ikast Golf Club lies in hilly terrain formed during the Ice Age. The course has existed on the landscape for 30 years, but its owner, businessman Jens Poulsen, has invested millions of kroner in plans to make it one of Denmark’s best courses. The work has included moving earth and creating tees, lakes and greens.

Much of the work was carried out without permission from the municipality. Both the municipality and the state consider parts of the landscape and nature worthy of protection.

Michael Tophøj Sørensen, a lecturer at Aalborg University’s Department of Sustainability and Planning, said the case could be escalated to the minister because the changes appeared systematic.

“When municipal politicians, who are supposed to act as guardians of land and nature interests, do not take on that task, the matter must be escalated to a higher level,” he said.

Under Denmark’s Planning Act, the minister can take over a municipal council’s powers in special cases involving matters of greater importance or issues affecting the responsibilities of other authorities. The minister in this case is Signe Munk of the Socialist People’s Party.

The municipality’s administration has assessed the 15 issues and concluded that eight could be approved, while the remaining seven should be rejected. Two political committees have nevertheless sent the case forward with full exemptions.

The matter has since reached the economic committee. Mayor Ib Lauritsen of the Liberal Party has proposed approving everything except three issues: a lake and two locations where the golf course has incorporated protected natural areas.

“This case is huge and very complex, but that does not change the fact that we have to try to see whether there is a way forward and what we can permit,” Lauritsen said.

Asked whether the council risked setting a precedent by allowing people to seek forgiveness rather than permission, he rejected the suggestion.

“If we are talking about a precedent, there must be comparable cases, and I am not afraid that we will get another case like this,” Lauritsen said.

One of the disputed projects is a temporary access road leading to a planned villa for Poulsen. The municipality’s administration says the road cannot be made permanent because it passes through an area protected under Section 3 of the Nature Protection Act.

Nature group reported the case

A local plan for the golf course development allows an expansion of the clubhouse with a hotel and conference facilities, as well as a 1,000-square-metre villa for Poulsen.

The Danish Society for Nature Conservation discovered several projects that it could not identify in the construction process and alerted the municipality. That led to the 15 issues now before the politicians.

The organisation says the case is important because very little nature is protected in Denmark.

“Here, they have deliberately and systematically run a red light, had no dialogue and paid no attention to the rules. In our best assessment, it is directly illegal and cannot justify an exemption,” said Lars Midtiby, director of the Danish Society for Nature Conservation.

In the municipal council, Simon Vanggaard of the Danish People’s Party and Kasper Pauli Petersen of the Social Democrats have been among the main critics of the case.

Sørensen also described the process as unusual.

“They completely disregard the value of our land and nature protection legislation and completely bow to development interests,” he said.

He said the council should have weighed those interests before the work was carried out, rather than approving changes after the fact.

DR is seeking comment from the developer.