Bath golfers outraged that loss-making course could be turned into cycling centre

We've got something similar been happening over the past couple of years.. the 2nd private golf company trying couldn't make a public golf space work financially.. so it's been dormant for a bit. 

After a couple of years of planning it looks like that despite objections there will still be a 9 hole pitch and putt put back into the 'comyn'... alongside a go ape thing, cafe and some more wildland... it's not a bad proposal to be fair, the council are simply taking the lowest cost options available to them for them by whoreing out parts of the area as commercial. We had campaigned for a bike park of some sort, (my club runs kids sessions from there usually on the weekend anyway) the council even took a day trip with a rep for British Cycling to show them how it could be done (there's funding from BC for our area available) but the council didn't take them up on it. The good news is that they've agreed we can have/keep the bike trails which have 'mysteriously cropped up' and developed over the past couple of years.. to which end is good news.  https://www.warwickdc.gov.uk/info/20820/the_future_of_newbold_comyn/1560...

I'm (just) old enough to remember the land before it was a golf course. Between being a rubbish tip and a walk-spoiler, it was used by motorcycle scramblers and some BMX riders. Would be quite neat to see it revert to the latter, and the hill could make it a pretty decent facility. I think the golfers need to move on - that game's boom is over.

And yes, Wellsway is somewhat pointless and nasty. Though it has good points - riding up there on a 3 speed Sturmey Archer equipped bike was a lot easier than going up Entry Hill instead, and I'm glad I was driving down the former than the much steeper latter when the brakes failed on my dad's mk 2 Escort...

i live in bath and i do a lot of cycling, i also play a bit of golf. i used to play at the entry hill course quite regularly, and 15 years ago it was pretty well kept and good fun. it's been allowed to fall into a state where i wouldn't even consider playing there, and like other people have said on this thread, we're not short of golf courses round here. the opportunity to turn it into something else should certainly be taken. what almost certainly won't be taken is the opportunity to properly join up the entry hill and odd down sites. it'll be a fudge because the precious wellsway obviously *must* be kept as a pointless 30mph dual carriageway with a central reservation, with one downhill lane for free parking and one uphill lane as a half-mile filter. so we'll get a crappy crossing with long waiting times, when what we should get is a reclaim of that space for active travel and a land bridge to create a useful traffic free route.

Looks like there are plenty of private sector golf courses nearby.

No need to waste taxpayers money subsidising a failing state owned one.

Had a similar thing in Farnborough where I live. The council supported course was losing £40,000 a year in a time where budgets are being stretched like never before. The big thing is with these courses is the membership & joining fees. The annual membership including green fees for the course was under £500 PA, while membership for most non-Council owned ones is at least £1,500 + £500 joining fee. Sorry but golf isn't a cheap sport to play and the numbers playing it have been falling considerably since its 80's boom and it uses vast quantities of natural resources such as water, fertilizers etc. Turning the courses into nature parks which can be used by a lot more people for several types of sporting activities is a much better use of council resources and has the potential to generate revenue through cafes, adventure areas such as GoApe and other things. Then there's the positive impact on the environment with wild vegetation actively encouraged rather than destroyed.

The problem with golf is not whether or not it's considered elitist etc., but the amount of space/resources it takes up. For one golf course, you can have multiple other sports/games in the same space (e.g. lawn bowls which can provide similar benefits to an older population), so it does make sense to me to re-purpose golf courses if there's not enough demand for them.

What with all the coronavirus, social distancing and business meetings taking place virtually, I'd like to see golf move into the virtual world. Rather than take up acres of space, you'd just need an old shed and a few VR headsets and then you've got all-weather golfing at any of the best courses in the world.

How about some sort of compromise solution, involving the invention of 'cycle golf'?  Why should it only be good walks that golf spoils?  With a bit of imagination it could be spoiling good cycle rides also.

The only good thing with 'golf' in the name was made by VW and had a GTI badge on it between 1977 and 1992. 

There is no moral or health reason to support golf- it's entirely useless as exercise and about as interesting as cricket on TV- for many people. Therefore, it's a commercial decision. Some cycling facility would be much better on health grounds, if it can be made to pay on money or health benefit terms. Many people like me would be unlikely to use it, as we just quietly use the roads trying to avoid being hit by drivers.

A Cycle park and/or cafe sounds like a much better solution than trying to flog the course for housing which is what one of the (private) loss making courses round here is doing.

4 times as much land in the UK is decidated to golf clubs than to housing.
This country is in desperate need of re-assessing and addressing it's priorities.

Mark Twain supposedly described golf as, "A good walk spoiled." I've never understood the appeal. Many of my colleagues play but it just seems boring to me. I'd much rather walk the dog.

There are so many golf courses in the UK and there's more demand for cycling facilities. It sounds to me like the council is making the right decision. A BMX track and mountain bike trails would be easy to construct on an old golf course.

"Councillor Paul Crossley, cabinet member for Community Services, commented: “As noted in a survey by Sport England, usage of golf courses has sadly been in decline nationally for many years and that is certainly something we’ve seen at both our golfing sites."

...meanwhile check out the pent up demand for MTB / BMX pump / Jump parks....people out and about building stuff in whatever locations they can find....ever come across a stealth golf course in your local woods? ....or heard that an "illegal" golf course was going to be destroyed? Time moves on 

The 'each round costs taxpayers £8' line is a bit disingenuous. It implies that if twice as many people played it would cost twice as much to run, and conversely that if no-one played there would be no costs at all, which is plainly nonsense. It would be more honest to say that x rounds more would need to be played for it to break even.