Another golf course set to be converted into housing

A golf club in Stockport has become at least the fifth in just a month to announce that its course could be concreted over.

A developer has lodged outline plans to build nearly 300 homes on the nine-hole Gatley Golf Course, which it states is ‘no longer financially viable’.

Hollins Strategic Land (HSL) says it wants to create a ‘walkable neighbourhood framed by green infrastructure’ at the venue.

It comes after the club voted to work with HSL to find ‘appropriate future uses’ for the 44-acre site in light of its ‘dire financial circumstances’.

The proposals would see up to 297 new properties built at the course. The clubhouse would be preserved as part of the scheme.

Gatley Golf Club. Image from Facebook

An assessment commissioned by HSL claims the golf course is ‘surplus to requirements’, with two courses within three miles of it both being of higher quality.

A planning statement describes the proposed site as a ‘ sustainable location for residential development’ that would ‘deliver significant benefits including affordable housing and improved access to public recreational open space’.

The application comes as Windmill Hotel and Golf Course in Coventry is set to have 566 homes built on it after applicant Bracebridge Holdings received planning approval, campaigners opposed to greenbelt development of 4,400 houses lost a legal challenge concerning North Oxford Golf Course and Horwich Golf Club is set to be converted into 276 homes, after a scheme was granted permission by the planning inspector even though Bolton Council had rejected the proposal.

And Widnes Golf Club hopes to convert its 18-hole golf course into a nine-hole facility with a new clubhouse and greenkeeping facilities, with the other nine holes turned into more than 230 homes.