New facility at Northumberland golf club to make way for housing

A new greenkeepers' store has been approved at Alnwick Golf Club due to plans for new homes on its current site.
The proposed new site for the clubhouse at Alnwick Golf Club, which is also moving due to the housing plans.The proposed new site for the clubhouse at Alnwick Golf Club, which is also moving due to the housing plans.
The proposed new site for the clubhouse at Alnwick Golf Club, which is also moving due to the housing plans.

The steel-framed shed, measuring 20 metres by 12 metres and which will be painted dark green, was given the go-ahead at last Thursday’s meeting of the North Northumberland Local Area Council.

But due to the concerns of a nearby resident, who claimed he had received no notification about this application, councillors decided to add two further conditions.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

These would require a plan for external lighting, including hours of operation, to be submitted before the building comes into use and a scheme of tree planting to be agreed prior to construction.

Neighbour Fergus Embleton-Black had said: “It’s a previously undisturbed site and we have not been overlooked at all. There will be noise and lighting impacts.

“Some conditions to mitigate nuisance and intrusion would be beneficial to us. I have no objection to the building per se.”

Alnwick Town Council did not object, but highlighted the possible impacts on the landscape given its site above the town and the grade II*-listed Camp Hill column. The planning officer considered these acceptable.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The new store is necessary in order to free up its current site, off Hope House Lane, for 10 new homes – four five-bedroom and six four-bedroom.

The latter plan has not been approved yet, but it has been agreed that it will go before the councillors for a decision.

The housing scheme also requires the clubhouse to move and full plans for a new facility were submitted to the county council in July.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A previous proposal, for a new clubhouse and car park on land next to Greensfield Farmhouse, was approved in October 2016.

The latest bid is for an area of grassland to the north of the 12th green and east of Close Cottage on the Rugley Road, the other side of the golf course from the approved scheme.

And this is not the only development proposed around the club.

Earlier this year, an outline scheme for 19 detached homes on land north-east of Stoney Hills, between the golf course and Aydon View/Fairfields, was also submitted to the council.

Ben O'Connell, Local Democracy Reporting Service