Deangate Ridge GC members fear golf club to be closed

A GolfPunk reader has written to us fearing that his local municipal course, Deangate Ridge in Kent, is being closed in order to turn it into housing - setting a dangerous precedent for municipal golf courses. 

The course has supposedly lost money over the past few years. But what is not mentioned is that the council was paid a lot of money to allow the dumping of waste building material, and that very little of this was re-invested in the course and left users without a driving range for a couple of years and a par 3 course that has yet to reopen.

Interestingly the par three course has been open as a foot golf course over the last two years and this had proved popular and foot golf is a growing sport. But It is also strange that the council has spent money on a recent “woodland management” programme so close to deciding to close the course.

Members believe that this is to pave the way for the land to be sold for development.

We would like to thank our reader for bringing this to our attention. We believe that municipal golf courses are under a lot of pressure already, and that councils will increasingly see them as an easy opportunity to build houses. Run them down, shut them down, and concrete them over.

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