Councillors reject council advice and refuse golf club plan

Councillors at Swindon Borough Council have rejected their own council’s advice and refused permission for a major golf club renovation project.

Broome Manor Golf Complex’s leaseholder Twigmarket had applied for planning permission to build a double-decker driving range, new visitor facilities, an adventure golf course, eight all-weather football pitches and new parking, as well as reduce the course from nine to six holes.

The plan had been recommended for approval by council officers and the council’s solicitor, Craig Hallett, even warned councillors before the vote that they could not refuse the application ‘without good planning reasons’.

He added that, if they did refuse the application, it would likely go to an appeal and be overturned by a planning inspector, which would be an expense that the council would have to fund.

Despite this, a majority of councillors – cheered by several opponents to the proposal who attended the council meeting – voted against the plan.

Twigmarket’s boss Jeremy Sturgess said: “We will obviously appeal and would hope to prevail in the end.”

According to reports, ‘opponents of the scheme had packed the public gallery and some of the members’ seats and applauded every point made against the plans. They had brought banners and signs both to this committee meeting and the one in December where the golf complex application had been due for a decision but was postponed owing to a procedural matter.’

Sturgess asserted that the market for traditional golf was diminishing and that it needed “cross-subsidy” from the adventure golf course and football pitches to ensure the long-term viability of the entire complex.

This was disputed by Damien Mackman, the golf club’s treasurer, who said: “Golf is not in decline – participation is booming and there is a waiting list to join the trust.”

Meanwhile, the leader of the Labour group at Swindon Borough Council, Jim Robbins, has tweeted that the council should now consider cancelling Twigmarket’s lease.

Sturgess said at the meeting that there had been less opposition to an approved plan for a health club and squash courts on the same three holes that had been earmarked to be removed. “What’s the difference? I believe it’s football,” he said. “I believe there’s an element of snobbishness – a golf elite who don’t want to share with footballers.”

Robbins said these comments were “outrageous”.