Tottenham set to take over golf club

Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur are set to take over the lease of a North London golf club which has controversially not reopened.

According to the Enfield Independent, Tottenham Hotspur have been named as the front-runner in a bid to win the lease for Whitewebbs Golf Course.

The football club wants to establish a women’s and girls’ football academy at the venue to develop the game at grassroots level, and has created the website www.tottenhamhotspur.com/whitewebbs to showcase what they hope to achieve.

Whitewebbs did not reopen on March 29, unlike almost every other golf club in England, following the most recent lockdown, with Enfield Council saying it had lost more than £1.1 million during the past five years and it would therefore be “irresponsible” to continue to subsidise it using taxpayers’ money.

However, one councillor said that decision was “outrageous” due to the recent participation surge, and the owner of a nearby golf course has said the venue should be making a healthy profit for the council at the moment.

If Tottenham are successful with this bid, the council would use the rental income from the 25-year lease to invest an extra £100,000 a year into grassroots sport for young people across the borough.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy said: “Our proposals will enhance public access, improve opportunities for recreational and community use and build on the fantastic work that has been delivered by our Foundation in Enfield over the past decade.”

The Conservatives won a seat from Labour in the recent by-election in Chase ward after their candidate Andrew Thorp pledged to fight to save the golf course.

Council leader Nesil Caliskan said: “Residents have consistently told us that any proposal for the future of Whitewebbs needs to ensure the public continue to have access to this beautiful area.

“We were clear from the start that any partner we select for this scheme must put the community at the heart of their vision, and I am pleased to see that the bid from Tottenham Hotspur does precisely that.

“I am also pleased that other bids that included soil importation have not scored highly and have therefore been ruled out.

“Any proposal will require planning consent and no lease will be entered into unless planning consent is granted following the statutory consultation.”

The owner of nearby Epping Golf Course, Neil Sjoberg, said: “It is unthinkable that Whitewebbs should not have been making Enfield a sizeable profit every year. To hear it has been actually making a loss suggests something is very wrong.

“I have known and played Whitewebbs many, many times. Epping is about as busy as Whitewebbs but our fees are lower and we seem to employ more people – and we have always made a healthy profit.

“It would be dreadful if such an historic and valued local golf facility closed just as golf was enjoying an unprecedented boom. Whitewebbs should be contributing to the council’s funds, not draining them.”