Tee with a view: The Addington golf course is renowned for its tough par 3s and outstanding views over London
Multi-million-pound sports business that needs to provide its members with a practice range is seeking to annex 15 acres of Shirley Heath in a deal with Croydon Council. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
The proposals from The Addington Golf Club are “privatisation by stealth”, according to one source.
An official from a wildlife organisation has described the golf club’s plans as being typical of “development proposals that seek to damage or remove areas of nature conservation importance”.
Residents fear that Croydon’s cash-strapped council will be a soft touch for The Addington’s platitudinous proposals, which include turning six hectares (15 acres) of public open space on Shirley Heath into a golf driving range and irrigation pond.
“Our council don’t seem to care what happens as long as it means more money for them,” one said.
There’s mounting suspicions about the proposals, even a suggestion that the council might be considering selling off this considerable chunk of much-loved public open space for less than its true value, just to reduce the authority’s costs in maintaining the heathland habitat.
And residents who have attended meetings arranged by The Addington say that they understand that the golf club may have been conducting these “consultations” on advice from the council, as Addington Hills and Shirley Heath have somehow become part of the asset disposals proposed by Mayor Jason Perry’s bankrupt borough.
Bunkered: Ronnie Corbett often played at The Addington. He was said to have an outstanding short game…
The Addington is world-renowned as the golf club where King George VI often played, as did the author PG Wodehouse, the creator of characters Jeeves and Wooster.
Wodehouse regarded some of the insatiable bunkers around the course with such trepidation that he once wrote: “Anyone wishing to write to the author should address all correspondence to: PG Wodehouse, c/o the sixth bunker, The Addington Golf Club, Croydon, Surrey.”
In the 1920s, such was the wealth of The Addington’s upper-crust membership, it was said that there were rarely any spaces in the car park because it was always full of Rolls-Royces.
More recently, famous comic Ronnie Corbett was a regular there, and since 2006 the course has been owned the Altonwood Group, the golf business set up by Ron Noades, the late chairman of Crystal Palace FC. Altonwood also owns courses at Westerham, Woldingham, Godstone and the Surrey National at Chaldon.
Storm clouds gathering: the golf club wants to take over the habitat management of Addington Hills public open space
Noades was an enthusiastic golfer, and legend has it that he decided to buy The Addington because he had never been allowed to play on its manicured greens and carefully tended fairways when he was a younger man.
After Ron Noades’s death in 2013, his youngest son, Ryan Noades, took over the running of the golf business. Ryan Noades is reputed to have net wealth of £55million.
In the past couple of years, Noades has begun extensive re-modelling of the 110-year-old course, to bring it back closer to its original design. This has involved felling many trees, opening up some land with the neighbouring Addington Palace GC, and plans to replace the 1950s-built clubhouse with a modern building on a different site within the course’s lands.
According to a leaflet distributed by The Addington to local residents’ associations in the past month or so, “A lack of funding after WWII allowed the site to be engulfed by dense vegetation. This jeopardised the golf course’s masterful design and also saw the loss of the site’s heathland fauna.
“The club is now carrying out a massive investment to restore the golf course and its heathland back to what it was.
“Various improved infrastructure is required to support this restoration and ensure the club becomes a world-class venue once more.”
Masterplan: the golf club says it needs only six hectares of Shirley Heath for its driving range, but their proposal brochure includes outlines of habitat ‘management’ in Addington Hills, too
This “improved infrastructure” includes taking 15 acres of Shirley Heath and turning it into a golf range.
“We wish to ultimately host tournaments, a pre-requisite for which will be a full-length driving range, which we do not currently have space for,” the club says. Obviously, club members who paid nearly £2,000 to join or those who pay up to £165 for a round of 18 holes might also expect to have practice facilities that are commonplace at most other, less-exclusive golf clubs.
The Addington also wants to dig out a large pond, to store rainwater “making us more sustainable”. Unmentioned in the leaflet is the massive cost savings for a golf club in reducing the amount of mains water it uses.
“We need an additional six hectares of land. We propose siting this on a small part of Shirley Heath. The driving range could be accessible to the public…”, that’s nice of them, “… and the lake could form a pleasant part of the improved public park and add further ecological benefits.”
‘Unmanaged’: conservationists insist that heathland is not supposed to be over-managed, and they highlight the considerable amount of volunteer work undertaken there
Much of The Addington’s PR charm offensive has been found by residents and ecologists to be… well, just offensive.
“Croydon Council owns 62 hectares of Public Open Space on Shirley Heath and Addington Hills. They are mostly unmanaged woodland,” the leaflet begins.
“Historically, these were heathland sites, but their heathland characteristics have almost entirely disappeared and they are deteriorating due to lack of management and funding.
“Seeing investment return to these areas would provide new facilities for locals, allow for the heathland to be restored and generally improve the value of these areas to their surrounding communities.
“The Addington Golf Club is proposing to provide that investment. In return, we would want to locate a golf practice facility and irrigation infrastructure on approximately six hectares of Shirley Heath.
‘We need to defend our precious public green spaces’
“This proposal would see 56 hectares of land on Shirley Heath and Addington Hills significantly improved for local community use, through the provision of environmental and ecological benefits, and the creation of more accessible and valuable public open spaces.”
One conservationist source today described the proposals as “a hotch-potch of platitudes and sweeping statements, basically to give the impression this is all for the good”.
They said: “We know why some sites (or parts of sites) are under-managed, but they don’t require a six-hectare landgrab with destination ‘gubbins’ to sort those issues out.
“This is privatisation by stealth,” they said. And they added that while some parts of Addington Hills would benefit from having more resources to conserve the heathland heritage, “I’m not sure a golf club is the organisation that should be doing it.”
Peter Underwood works for The Conservation Volunteers, who have been active in the area for decades – doing much of the work in Addington Hills that Croydon Council has often neglected to do. He also lives locally.
He told Inside Croydon: “I was shocked when I found out about these outrageous plans for a private club to take control of our public spaces just so they can build a driving range for their members.
‘Shocked’: Peter Underwood
“It is clear that they have no understanding of how rare and special these sites are for nature and for local people. Sadly, the only thing that didn’t surprise me is that our council don’t seem to care what happens as long as it means more money for them.
“We need to take a stand to defend our precious public green spaces.”
Matthew Frith is the director of policy and research at the London Wildlife Trust. He told Inside Croydon: “We are alarmed by this proposal by The Addington that seeks to remove six hectares of Shirley Heath for a golf driving range on the pretext that it is the only solution to address the conservation of the heathland habitats of this part of Croydon.
“While we acknowledge that the proposal states the importance of these habitats in a local and regional context (albeit not in any detail), the proposal describes them in wholly negative and subjective terms, a typical pretext that we see in many development proposals that seek to damage or remove areas of nature conservation importance.”
Inside Croydon approached Croydon Council and Mayor Jason Perry with a series of questions about the authority’s position on The Addington’s proposals, also asking whether Mayor Perry or any Croydon councillors are members of Altonwood-owned golf clubs or have enjoyed gifts or hospitality there.
There had been no response by the time of publication.
We also approached Ryan Noades this morning with a series of questions regarding The Addington’s proposals, which he said he would be unable to respond to before publication.
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