Suffolk golf club planning major £6 million refurbishment

A golf club in Suffolk hopes to embark on a huge multi-million pound project that would include building homes and a magnificent new clubhouse in order to safeguard its future.

Felixstowe Ferry Golf Club has applied for planning permission to build five detached homes, which would fund improvements to the club, including the clubhouse and a café, putting green, toilets and a viewing platform open to the public.

According to the Ipswich Star, the golf club, which counted former prime minister AJ Balfour and former open champion Willie Fernie as members, aims ‘to provide a functional, attractive and efficient clubhouse and facilities fit for the 21st century.’

Architect Wincer Kievenaar added: “The current clubhouse is an original farmhouse building, compromised through generations of alterations which does not best serve the needs of its members, or attract new players into the sport.

“The detached shop creates a separation between the clubhouse golfing professional and the members.

“The redevelopment seeks to safeguard the club’s medium / long term future now that the current facilities are no longer fit for purpose and at the end of their useful life.

“The proposed clubhouse is the way in which the future of the golf club can be secured, and the proposed five residential dwellings proposed alongside the clubhouse are essential in order to viably enable the clubhouse to be built.”

A pre-application meeting was held between the design team and council officers and the project received “positive and constructive feedback”,

If approved, the development will take up four acres of the club’s land, which includes two courses either side of the Tomline Wall floodbank on the links between Old Felixstowe and Felixstowe Ferry.

The new public viewing platform at the top of the beach steps will give views across the area, and information about the local Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).