A CASH-STRAPPED golf club is appealing to planners to give the go-ahead to a scheme saimed at saving the club from folding.
St Melyd’s Golf Club at Meliden, near Prestatyn, is currently losing £12,500 a year and its clubhouse is in poor condition.
In 2007 Denbighshire County Council turned down a proposal to build a new clubhouse on a slightly different site and sell off the existing site, along with another piece of land, for four executive houses. The planners objected because no affordable housing was included.
Now a fresh application has been submitted for a new clubhouse just outside the existing development limits and for only two houses, one of which would replace the existing steward’s dwelling. That would obviate the need to include any social housing in the scheme.
Planning consultant Matthew Gilbert, on behalf of the club, says it would cost an estimated £129,000 to repair the existing 1960s clubhouse but even that would not solve the club’s financial problems, which are largely due to the high maintenance costs.
The club, which has 360 playing and 80 social members, has been losing £12,500 a year for the past four years and as a result its assets have been severely depleted.
“It is clear that to enable the club to continue to operate the existing financial situation needs to be reversed,” he says in his report to the council.
“It is important to emphasise that the solution to the financial problem is not simply to increase income,” he continues. “There are a total of five golf courses in the local area, so competition for members is keen.
“St Melyd Golf Club is already towards the upper end of the range in terms of fees and so any increase would most probably reduce membership, and consequenrly income.”
St Melyd’s is only a nine-hole course, so the potential to attract more casual visitors and day events is considered limited, but the clubhouse is well used for private functions.
“It might be argued by some that the alternative to what is proposed is simply to let the club run down its resources to an inevitable closure at some time in the not too distant future. We hope that such an option will be quickly dismissed,” added Mr Gilbert.