Capital plan: Croydon Council has denied it has any plans to sell Shirley Park Golf Club
Croydon’s cash-strapped council has today issued a statement denying that it has any plans to sell the freehold of Shirley Park Golf Club and its 130-acre course.
The parkland golf course, once the Shirley Park Estate, has been owned by the local authority since 1951, and was seen as one of the assets that the council might look to sell to pay off a chunk of its £1.5billion debts.
In 2004, the council was seeking to sell its interests in Shirley Park, on Addiscombe Road, and the Addington Palace Golf Club and historic buildings, on a previous occasion when balancing the Town Hall budget was proving a tough task.
Well-established: Shirley Park Golf Club has been offering a 19th hole off Addiscombe Road for 110 years
Then, the council leased the Shirley Park land back to the private members-owned golf club, which had been based at the site since 1914.
The council might still manage to raise some additional income, as SPGC is seeking to buy an extension on its 150-year lease.
The golf course land is much used by Shirley residents and walkers, who enjoy the haven for wildlife that it provides, tucked in between a residential area and the woodland of the Shirley Hills, with views of the Shirley Windmill and out across Croydon town centre towards central London.
But locals and golfers have heard speculation over the past weeks that the course might soon be under new ownership.
Today, a council spokesperson said: “The council is not selling the site.
“Shirley Park Golf Club occupies the land under a 150-year lease and is seeking to extend this. The existing leasing agreement includes conditions to protect the green space and the land is subject to the usual planning policies.
“There is no intention to change existing protections for the land.”
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Is the cash-strapped Croydon council that has been forced to deny it is selling off our land related to the cash-strapped Croydon council whose corpulent Mayor recently made it cheaper to park one’s flatulent motor car on the borough’s public highways? I think we should be told
Are any of Croydon’s green spaces unchanged? The Addington Golf Club were trying to do a land grab of much of Shirley Heath earlier this year, the Old Whitgiftians Sports Club in South Croydon went bust last week, but re-emerged under a new name the following day (probably just a dodge to avoid paying creditors?), and the Selsdon Park Hotel closed its golf course, to “re-wild” the area, but then went bust.
Longer ago, South Norwood Country Park was built on a former sewage farm that used to be in LB of Bromley’s territory….
So Golf Clubs have protected status in Croydon when there are so many of them in the area for a sport that is in long term participatory decline. If the Council could sell off the freehold on this for developmental use it would wipe off it’s entire debt. Funny how ruthlessness is always bounded with certain groups isn’t it.