Putting new housing developments down on our golf courses is a growing threat, as the demand grows for new developments to be built to cope with the UK’s growing population. Golf’s pleasant looking green belt land is ever more in the firing line.
Our new features section looks into this big issue from our club’s points of view. Different opinions regarding the subject will surface, the first two parts here epitomises that, for and against. We look at two clubs in similar current situations, but with differing end results should the projects ever come to fruition.
The club that tee off this feature for us are Bromsgrove Golf Centre – their battle is very much a going concern. Midlands Golfer talked to their head spokesperson and Men’s Club Captain, Lee Machin, in September. It was a real eye-opener.
The centre is owned by the Morris brothers, who in 2017, signed a contract with a land promoter to put the venue forward after an appeal from Bromsgrove District Council for sites to build housing on. At that time the Golf Centre was losing money, so it probably seemed a good exit strategy for the brothers.
Fast forward eight years, and golf is booming locally with the Golf Centre in robust health and profitable. BGC is one of 21 sites across the district that have been earmarked for housing in the Council’s public consultation document. It is the second largest site with the potential for 1,300 new homes to be built on the golf course and adjacent land.
Although BGC only opened in 1992 it has become an important community hub as well as a leisure facility. Indeed, its facilities bear comparison with some of the best clubs in the country. As well as a challenging 18-hole course, it has Trackman fitted to 29 of its driving range bays, a short game area, a footgolf course, a thriving Golf Academy, a well-stocked shop and golf club fitting centre run by Midlands Golf Bromsgrove, conference rooms and a very popular restaurant and bar. Visit BGC any day of the week and it is busy.
“We know from our tee sheets that we are one of the busiest 18-hole golf clubs in the UK. Added to that we have over 200 juniors in our academy, again one of the biggest in the country. We also do a lot of positive work with three local SEN schools, and with various disability groups. And we have been making great strides in encouraging women to get into golf.”
“The perception within the local community is that the club members are wanting to sell the land and can’t understand why we’d all wish to do that. It’s simply not true – the land is owned by the brothers and there is no alternative site proposed for a golf club. Once this land has gone that’s it, we can do nothing about it. The only thing the members own are the trophies in the trophy cabinets.”
Closing the golf course will not only affect the 1,100 members but will lead to the loss of around 80 jobs – greenkeepers, reception staff, chefs, restaurant workers, those in the golf shop, and PGA professionals. It seems odd that a Council would actively force redundancies on so many people and financially affect the many local businesses that trade with the Golf Centre.
“It is difficult to understand why the Council would allow the closure of a facility that means so much to so many people. It’s not only golfers who would be affected but the many groups who use the clubhouse for fund-raising activities, birthday and christening parties, wedding receptions, anniversary dinners, and wakes”.
So, what are the golf club doing to fight the prospect of closing the golf course?
“Our sub-committee identified several key activities we needed to do. First, we needed to regularly communicate with our members to keep them up to date with activities and to counter defeatist rumours. Our initial email set out an outline of what we planned to do and when. This also asked that anyone with knowledge and experience of planning matters to get in touch.”
Throughout the summer, the sub-committee have been engaging with local politicians, print, online and social media, other local groups, and with England Golf. That work will continue even after this first public consultation closes.
In early September the club submitted a long and detailed response to the Council’s proposals, and just before the Council announced it was extending the deadline by a month because of technical difficulties with its online portal.
“In our opinion, the Council’s proposals run contrary to many aspects of the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework and against the opening paragraph of the Council’s own document which states its aim is to ‘ensure that recreation facilities continue to improve and thrive’. Ironic, isn’t it?”
Will the local politicians and their planning staff listen, and more importantly will central Government? Lee thinks that the case against using the golf course for housing or other development is strong. For a start, the NPPF requires Council’s to ‘guard against the unnecessary loss of valued facilities and services’ and to ‘ensure that established facilities and services are retained for the benefit of the community’.
“So far, the planners have ignored the fact that if you develop any land that is used for leisure facilities, you must find an alternative site to satisfy current demand. They’ve missed that point completely. To me that’s a strong angle to defend, As we’re proprietor-owned we can’t go anywhere else, so they shouldn’t develop on it in the first place as no alternative can be provided.”
The club’s response document also makes great play of the NPPF’s requirement that ‘planning policies and decisions should aim to achieve healthy, inclusive and safe which promote social interaction, and enable and support healthy lives … through the provision of green infrastructure and sports facilities.’ BGC ticks all those boxes.
Golf is a classic example of ‘green exercise’ physical activity conducted in natural settings which research shows boosts mood and self-esteem significantly. The sport involves moderate walking and mental engagement, improves balance, joint function, confidence, sleep and cognitive health, especially in older adults. It is a good cardio-vascular workout with those playing golf at a lower risk of heart and respiratory illness.
“Over half of our members are seniors. It’s not just the golf, it’s their social life too, and their friendship base. Golfers and their families recognise the physical benefits of golf. But the social interaction after a round is also good for everyone’s mental well-being. The vast majority wouldn’t be able to relocate to neighbouring clubs 15-20 miles away, already heavily subscribed clubs anyway with higher fees.”
So, the closure of a golf course, with no alternative provision, could have a knock-on effect on local health services, probably already over-stretched enough by 9,000 new Bromsgrove families in new homes.
Yet this article isn’t a witch hunt against the brothers, far from it – relations between them and the members might not be as toxic as you might expect as Lee says.
“They understand our situation and aren’t pushing to prevent our activities. In 2017 when their application was made to the council, golf was in a different space with some clubs struggling. The owners took their decision then because they probably couldn’t envisage a golf club lasting here for that much longer. Now it’s a completely different scenario, we’re at full membership with an incredibly busy bar and restaurant too. If you were to ask the owners now if they would volunteer to put the land up for housing, there might be a completely different answer to that.”
The public consultation closes near the end of October. The Council will have to sift through the thousands of objections (and a few positive comments) across the 21 sites. They then must send their modified proposals to Government for a view before publishing it for a further round of public consultation next summer. Hopefully, BGC will have been removed from the list.
“We know that a housing crisis exists and that all Councils must produce a housing strategy. In our response we have suggested several other sites that are better suited to housing development than a golf course. These alternative sites are largely open fields that won’t require 25,000 mature trees to be felled releasing thousands of tons of carbon into the atmosphere.
“The town’s road network is already under great strain which road widening along limited sections of the A38 won’t solve. So, adding 2,500 vehicles will simply add to the congestion. Far better to build new housing where the road network is”.
The Council will publish its 15-year housing strategy early in 2028 which gives those opposed to the proposals some optimism.
“This is a long process, and we are only at its start. By April 2028, there may be a new Government, or the current Government may come up with different ideas on housing need in the local area. That’s what tends to happen in the lead up to elections.”
The sub-committee is rather critical of the Government’s Housing Needs Assessment which they believe was used to justify the building of 1.5 million new homes by 2029 and then rolled forward for the next 15 years.
“The calculation they’ve told councils to use is not logical. It requires Bromsgrove to build 12,155 new homes by 2043 for a population that is projected to increase by 12,890 in the same period. Average occupancy levels would suggest only 5,500-6,000 new homes are required in that period with, maybe, another 2,000 to meet the needs of those on the Council’s housing waiting lists.”
“All of the facts and the arguments we make are again compromised by the rumour mill, people second-guessing what the Council and the planners think and what gets out there in the local area. The knock-on effect of that makes staff and members nervous, it’s bound to. But there is still job security for staff and rounds for the golfers. This entire process could take 10 years from now, not overnight like many are led to believe. Many more birdies will arrive before the bulldozers do, if indeed that ever happens.”
Couldn’t help but agree with that when considering what happened to the Staffordshire clubs Ingestre Park and Whittington Heath when HS2 came knocking on their doors and many of their neighbouring landowners too, around 10 years ago. Huge changes came along that affected many, inside and outside of the golf clubs, then HS2 stopped in its tracks in Birmingham, and the whole upheaval ended up as a meaningless exercise. The same thing could easily happen to BGC.
Lee went on to list further reasons against the development, the futility of which becomes even more stark.
“Bromsgrove goes beyond just members, seniors and juniors. We do a lot of work with children with various disabilities, they call the event the Special Olympics; we host a day for them where those children and young adults are at the academy learning golf and are taken around the course with our members as caddies and advisors. We also work with the On-Course Foundation, these are ex Service men & women that use golf as a way to help/cope in their everyday life. They join us every year, amongst many other charity causes.”
“How can the council sign this off? We’ve got elements of the Council that are in favour of supporting us and are quite vocal about that, but also others who fear Government could direct the Council to implement a housing plan without further public consultation.
“The planning department might see us as an easy win, because 1) the golf course is near the town centre, 2) it’s by the A38, and 3) we’re near local schools. What they are forgetting about is that the road must be widened anyway because it’s already at full capacity, and so are the schools, and there are no plans to build any new ones, so where are the children going to go?” Any new families will be faced with travelling 10-15 miles to their schools, who needs that?”
Going down the line, the sub-committee are aware of the possible requirement to get together some sort of fighting fund should this saga find itself with the Planning Inspectorate or even in the courts.
“Our biggest argument again is that the planners have put this land forward against clear guidance in the Government’s framework document.”
All very bizarre and the biggest irony of all? The following Friday after our meeting, Bromsgrove Council were at the Golf Centre hosting a quiz night, they do that quite often and also use the club’s meeting rooms. The very organisation trying to put a stop to one of the Midlands’ most popular and busy golf clubs are set to miss out themselves!
Wouldn’t have minded being a fly on the wall for that quiz night. But Lee wasn’t intent on missing an opportunity. “We’ve got a team together for the quiz, we’ll be in their ears all night!”
