Losses force council to axe Oadby golf course
A council is shutting a golf course which is making a loss of more than £100,000 a year.
Oadby Golf Course, which has been leased to Oadby and Wigston Borough Council by Leicester Racecourse for almost 40 years, is due to close at the end of March.
The 18-hole course has about 200 members and is used by thousands of pay-as-you-play users a year.
It has been operating at a loss for a number of years, costing the council £100,000 for this financial year, and £85,000 in 2010/11.
Anne Court, director of services at the council, said: "The state of play is that the council had to balance the budget for the coming year and part of that involved making a decision about the golf course.
"It was losing us £100,000 a year, which is an awful lot of money."
Ms Court said a recent consultation, asking residents which council services they valued, revealed the golf course was "consistently the lowest on the list of priorities".
She added: "We have to make tough decisions to maintain front line services."
Council bosses are locked into a contract with the racecourse until 2015 and so have to keep the course in a "mothball" state – which means it does not have to be maintained to golf course standards but the authority cannot let it become a wilderness. The council said this that would still cost about £42,000 in the first year.
But the authority is in negotiations with the racecourse to terminate the contract early.
Clive Buckle, managing director of Leicester Racecourse, said he hoped the course could be opened again.
"It is difficult to say what is going to happen, so all I can talk about is our intentions," he said.
"It is our intention to have it open as a golf course, but it would need significant improvement and investment. We think that it can be commercially viable. It has all happened rather quickly."
He said no decision had been made as to who might invest in the course or who would run it, but it is understood this could be the racecourse itself, or a private investor.
Oadby Golf Course is a municipal facility, but also has private members who will be forced to stop golfing.
Rich Primrose, secretary of Oadby Golf Course members' club, said he thought members could potentially run it themselves.
"The club could take it on perhaps," he said.
"If there are enough club members willing to put into it, that could be an option. It has happened elsewhere."
Three permanent ground staff at the course have been offered voluntary redundancy, but the council could not say how much this would cost, or how many seasonal staff would lose their jobs.
13 Comments
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by clagnutt
Thursday, February 23 2012, 9:55AM
“traveller camp ? edge of city ?”
by le8man
Friday, February 17 2012, 9:01PM
“The Lib Dems lost a council seat yesterday 16th Feb) in a by-election for the Woodlands Ward on Oadby Wigston Council to the Conservatives, so much for the council's claim for strong financial management!”
by Kohelet
Monday, February 13 2012, 8:44PM
“by ruweller
Sunday, February 12 2012, 2:01PM
."Why don't they rename it the Oadby Multi-Faith Golf Club? Bet they wouldn't close it then?! Oh shame on me, titter titter!"
.
Given recent events you are neither funny or intelligent. Grow up”
by Eastonian
Monday, February 13 2012, 4:25PM
“"If there are enough Club members willing to put into it", fine words but highly unlikely.
If these sums of money have been lost year after year why should the taxpayer through the Council Tax have to carry on bailing out?”
by george_cloney
Monday, February 13 2012, 2:46PM
“Promote it better to the public, If money is spent on a popular public service (I mean one that is available to everyone not just funded be government) it is not a loss it is a social investment. Better promotion would mean parents and younger people know they can go there and make use of the facility without being a snob.
Its like free swimming if kids go there and smack balls hard with clubs they are not on the street smacking peoples property or each other.
If you don't get what I mean go and ask teenagers what there is to do in Leicester and why they hang out in large groups in dark areas. The answer will be because there is nothing to do and if they hang out in the streets they get moved on or into trouble.
What the kids don't realise is they are not being specific enough. They mean there is nothing to do that they can AFFORD. Being in large groups provides social development opportunities that will help them be more balanced and rounded individuals in the future, as they will hopefully have support from friends.
If the council is going to pay 50K to maintain the grounds they should consider other uses. If that fails they could always attempt to make money, like lots of other leisure activities successfully do. It would not be a sin for a council to generate wealth from charging high fees for memberships and merchandise if they use the money generated appropriately for communal leisure e.g. social spaces/activities.
Sounds like what they need is a business manager that works voluntarily for free, but if they do make any money gets a bonus that represents a percentage of the excess only.
I think you would find a lot of people who would be happy to do that for there community or just to put on there CV. like me they will probably know nothing about running a golf club, but what does that matter when they are doing the job for free?”
by nursemad
Sunday, February 12 2012, 12:35PM
“Maybe it could be used to extend Knighton Park, or be bought by the university as sports facilities??”
by georgeisafish
Sunday, February 12 2012, 10:16AM
“you can imagine the sort of 5 bed, 3 bathroom, 2 merc car spaces, no garden 1/2 mill pricetag property's that could be built? however, i can think of 1 local in a large home(visable from the a6 before the r/a) that could halt any plans with 1 phonecall, even before the ink has dried!”
by oldhenry
Saturday, February 11 2012, 4:56PM
“So they are not saving £100k at all as the mothballing will cost more than budgeted, it always does.
As for teh contract with the Racecousre , they would want a nice termination payment as what about some planning permission to build houses”
by Opinion8ed
Friday, February 10 2012, 6:28PM
“@Chick7766. You have voiced my worst fears. I hope and pray that it remains a golf course as this is a wonderful green space. It may be a golf course but sitting between the race course and Knighton Park it provides a lovely continuous area of greenery and trees. Surely it could have been better publicised although last winter took its toll as it was too cold or snowy to play.”
by le8man
Friday, February 10 2012, 3:45PM
“Surely after two decades as the controlling party of Oadby and Wigston Council, the Lib Dems could have done better than this, losing a cool 1/4 Million in just 3 years, a number of serious questions require answering, such as when did it start losing money, how much more taxpayers money has been used to subsidise this facility and for how long? Why wasn't emergency action taken last year or before that event, what business recovery plan was put in place?
Seems to me that there are more questions than answers and the taxpayers of Oadby & Wigston have been ill-served.
Always reading that the Council is supposed to be well run, well this kinda of blows a hole below the water line.”