A golf club has revealed plans for a new ‘high quality’ driving range and pitch and putt course. Stockport Golf Club, in Offerton, is drawing up proposals for a short game course and driving range with ‘fairways, target greens, teeing off points and bunkers’.
It would make use of an underused practice area and separate grazing paddock at the Offerton Road course to create new facilities spanning 13 acres of green belt land. A new access road and car park are also proposed. The proposals are outlined in papers submitted to the council ahead of a full planning application being lodged later this year.
They describe Stockport as one of the ‘premier’ golf clubs in the North West, providing locals with a ‘fantastic facility’ and employing more than 20 staff.
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Papers add: “Stockport Golf Club, in conjunction with Booth Ventures, is committed to improving the practice facilities and to encourage all to participate in the sport with a view to providing an Academy for the sport, which will provide further employment opportunities.
“Currently the nearest such facility is in the Macclesfield area and such an improved all year round practice area would be a great asset to Stockport, the local community and the surrounding areas.”
Documents go on to extol the virtues of golf as ‘an activity which can be enjoyed by anyone of any age, gender or ability whilst also giving an opportunity to disabled people to take part’.
“The benefits of fresh air and physical activity to a person’s wellbeing are well documented and due to the impact of Covid 19 over the last two years probably more so in these uncertain times,” it adds.
The scheme also proposed the planting of native trees as well as improvement to neighbouring habitats and a new drainage system to combat the waterlogging issues these areas currently suffer from. Document say there will be an opportunity to create new habitats, including woodland, wetland and rough grass areas.
Although in the green belt , the club argues that “very special circumstances” exist to allow leisure improvements on this site.
Papers make the point that any impact would only be temporary in nature, being limited to the construction phase. This involves using infill material to increase the overall levels of the land, and is expected to take between 15 and 17 months.
However, it is anticipated that there will be an average of 60 HGV’s in and 60 HGV’s out of the site every working day during this time.
“Once operational there is expected to be very little visual impact as the land becomes part of the adjacent golf course,” documents say.
It is acknowledged there would be a ‘moderate impact’ on the landscape in the the short term. But it is argued this would virtually disappear over the long term ‘as the area becomes part of the wider golf course’.
A full planning application is expected later this year.
