Golf club chief defends sale of land for housing

A GOLF club that plans to sell its land for housing says it will build an academy course and new practice facilities and refurbish the clubhouse at its new home.

Reading Golf Club, which occupies a 96-acre site off Kidmore End Road in Emmer Green, is to merge with Caversham Heath Golf Club, which occupies land owned by the Mapledurham Estate.

It says it plans to leave between October 21 next year and March 31, 2021 and is working with Fairfax Acquisitions, of West Sussex.

The company is yet to confirm a housing target but Wates, the developer with which the clubworked before switching in January, was aiming for up to 700 dwellings.

The club has also reached a deal with Welsh housebuilder Redrow to sell the 28-acre portion of its land which falls under Reading Borough Council’s control, subject to housing getting planning permission. Just over nine acres of this land have been earmarked for between 90 and 130 units in Reading Borough Council’s draft local plan.

Meanwhile, the club’s remaining 68 acres in South Oxfordshire were put forward as a “strategic housing site” in the district council’s local plan but not included in the final document.

In a letter to the Emmer Green Residents’ Association, chairman Colin Reed said the club had been facing “a very uncertain future”, with many “serious financial challenges” on the horizon.

He said: “It is no secret that significant funds are required to secure the long-term future for the club. Caversham Heath Golf Club, while potentially an exciting site for golf, never quite fulfilled its full potential. As such, it fits in perfectly with our plans to move to a new home.

“Unlike our current site, it will be able to compete in a very competitive market with a quality product to sell. Our plans are to refurbish the magnificent clubhouse, build a new academy course to develop youngsters and beginners and create quality practice facilities so important to the modern golfer.

“Finally, the true jewel of our future will be the course itself, which is being carefully and cleverly reworked by Tom McBroom, a widely acclaimed course designer from Canada.

“His plan is to reduce the lengthy walks, deemed by many to be too long, by several hundred yards and improve the golfing experience by way of variety and interest — for all standards of golfers, young and old. This work is well underway and soon all bunkers will have been refurbished.

“We are confident that our plans for Caversham Heath, once completed, will allow members to be a part of a nationally recognised facility and a club that Caversham, Reading and South Oxfordshire communities can be proud of.”

Mr Reed said the consequences of doing nothing were “unimaginable”. He explained: “For example, a financial collapse could have led to administrators seizing control of the club. In that case, their focus would have been simply on realising an asset value with scant regard for our members or the consequences for the local community.

“We have now entered a joint partnership with Redrow Homes to sell the part of our land which falls under Reading Borough Council’s control, subject to satisfactory planning outcomes. We are confident the new plan, which offers lots of green space, retains trees and creates much-needed quality family homes, will be appreciated.”

Mr Reed wouldn’t give details of Redrow’s plans but said he was confident they would be appreciated as trees would be retained along with large amounts of green space and “much-needed quality family homes.”

He said: “We also feel that once the plans are revealed, the reality will prove very different to the negative picture currently being put out into the public sphere.

“Furthermore, we are currently looking into the possibility of retaining a nine-hole course on the South Oxfordshire District Council land to the north of Cucumber Wood. We will, however, need to find an operator for this facility.

“The current wording in the local plan regarding golf activities is, quite frankly, baffling and we believe it could in fact have a detrimental effect locally as the result could well be an unsustainable business.”

Mr Reed claimed there had been a lot of “scaremongering” about potential housing numbers on the land. He said: “The site would never realise the housing numbers being bandied around by certain pressure groups, nor would the club or its members even entertain such development.

“Much work has been done behind the scenes to try to do what we can to ensure improvements are made outside the new public green spaces. For example, a substantial new medical facility is planned and we are also aware that improvements will be required to the local transport infrastructure.

“We hope that all this work will come to fruition in a timely manner.” Mr Reed said the club’s submission for the local plan was made at a time when it was planning to relocate to another course with far less land. This would have required improved practice facilities and an academy course to remain on the current site and was still the case during the planning inspector’s visit a year ago.

This deal then fell through and its development deal with Wates hit a “major stumbling block”. It then partnered with Fairfax and the potential relocation to Caversham Heath emerged.

Mr Reed said: “In those changed circumstances, our requirement to maintain golf operations on our land was no longer necessary or indeed a viable option.

“Unfortunately, we could not resubmit directly to the planning inspector regarding this and we find ourselves in the strange limbo position of dealing with plans that are now wildly out of date.

“Although the aim of relocating remains the same, we fully appreciate that we will have to be very considered in terms of the stewardship of our land once we have vacated.”