Bridlington Golf Club is saved

An historic golf club has had its future secured after East Riding of Yorkshire Council agreed to sell the 118 acres of land that the golf course resides on to it.

Bridlington Golf Club is over 100 years old and attracts thousands of visitors every year. Related to the agreed contract is the club’s plan to build a hotel.

Mike Smith, chairman of Bridlington Golf Club, said: “I am delighted that the contracts have been exchanged. This is a momentous time in the history of Bridlington Golf Club and secures its future.

“We will continue to promote ‘golf for all’ in Bridlington and the surrounding area and also strive to attract more visiting golfers to the area, particularly when our new hotel accommodation is operational.”

Alan Menzies, director of planning and economic regeneration at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said: “The sale of this land to Bridlington Golf Club helps secure the future of this historic club within the town and also means the council secures a capital receipt that will go back into the authority’s budget for future capital works.

“The sale of land and buildings that are surplus to the council’s operational requirements or that could benefit local communities is a daily undertaking for the authority, with our valuations and estates office handling over 750 property transactions in 2017/18, including sales, purchases, licences, tenancies and rent reviews.

“Contracts have now been exchanged but the sale will only be completed upon completion of the club’s new hotel, which secured planning permission during the summer.”

The Yorkshire Post reports that in 2014 the club was planning to buy the freehold for £750,000 before selling the 16^thhole to a developer for £1.65 million, which would build 22 houses and a hotel to give the club a new income stream.

Now, states the paper, the club hopes to have the shell of the hotel completed in about two months’ time.

An East Riding Council spokesman added: “For the avoidance of doubt, the intention of the council and Bridlington Golf Club is that the golf course land will remain as a golf course, with a hotel and appropriate ancillary leisure facilities in perpetuity and the contract between the two parties imposes an appropriate restrictive covenant.

“The contract also includes clawback provisions which means that, should there ever be a future change of use, the council will receive a fair share of the uplift in value.”