Ian Paisley MP appalled at Golf Resort Challenge

An application to build an 18-hole golf course and hotel complex at Runkerry was given the go-ahead in February.

However, the trust is seeking leave for a judicial review of the decision.

Mr Paisley said he feared court action could take as long as two years and the developers would begin looking elsewhere.

“This new golf course development will bring 360 new jobs to the local area in a time of economic recession,” said Mr Paisley who pointed out that the application was 12 years in the process and that it went “through every twist and turn imaginable”.

Plans for the development, on a 365-acre site just over a mile away from the entrance to the Giant’s Causeway, include a championship course, a five-star 120-bedroom hotel and 70 golf lodges.

On Wednesday, the charity confirmed the legal move saying it had “consistently opposed the planning application”.

It added that, in particular, it was concerned that the entire development was on land zoned in the draft Northern Area Plan as the “distinctive landscape setting of the World Heritage Site in which no development should take place”.

The trust said: “This is based on a recommendation by UNESCO - the body responsible for World Heritage designations - that there should be a buffer zone to protect the special landscape surrounding the Causeway.”

The charity added that having “carefully considered” all the information relating to the planning decision, there remained “fundamental issues of concern”.

It said it had “no option” but to seek leave for a judicial review, so that the decision could be given the “fullest possible consideration.”

“In the case of a judicial review, this is a three-month window, with a legal obligation to act quickly. This timetable applies irrespective of what the issue is, and any suggestion that the National Trust has chosen the timing of this action, are inaccurate,” the Trust said.