Much has been said of the planning application which the council planning department have rejected at the latest meeting, a move which many are in agreement will be overturned when it is appealed, at the Swindon tax payers expense.
In the interest of fairness and for those that were either not in attendance or had the chance to watch the proceedings online, here is Twigmarkets Jeremy Sturgess’ speech in full.
“Good evening my name is Jeremy Sturgess and I am the Applicant speaking on behalf of Twigmarket.
These plans have been a long time in gestation but in essence are the business plan that we presented to Swindon Council before we took over in 2014. At the time it was accepted that this facility needed to diversify its revenue sources to cross subsidise the declining golf activity and secure the long term viability of the site. That is still the case. Notwithstanding the recent Covid Bounce in the popularity of golf, which is already receding, the current energy, inflation and interest rate crisis makes it clearer than ever that businesses, and particularly capital intensive businesses, need to be robust, profitable and growing to survive these shocks. There are many examples of Municipal golf courses being closed because they failed to adapt, invest and diversify. No one wants this for Broome Manor.
Members should be aware that the user clause in our 2014 lease specifically refers to and permits Adventure Golf and a Football Centre as these were always part of our plans from the beginning so please don’t think that these are hastily prepared proposals that are not well considered. They are a copy of the very successful development at our other Municipal golf course in North London
Turning to the most contentious element of this application which was the proposed loss of 3 holes of the 9 hole course. Twigmarket have listened to Golf Members concerns and the Trust who run the golf courses have confirmed they will implement a new layout which allows 9 holes to continue for the foreseeable future. Its a shame therefore that the objecting golf members have failed to acknowledge this and as soon as this issue was resolved in their favour simply moved on to the football pitches and parking as the main focus of their objections.
In fact we were surprised and disappointed by the Golf Members opposition to the application as the principle of the loss of the 3 holes had already been established by the 2017 consent for the Health Club . At the public consultations for this previous application the then Golf Club Chairman supported that application in principle on behalf of the Membership and noted how the golf courses had improved under the management of Twigmarket.
So what has happened in the last few years to cause this volte face and the well organised opposition we now face from existing golf Club Members ? Well Its two things. A new Chairman of the affiliated Members Club who you will hear from tonight and ” Football”. Because it seems that a first class football centre, the likes of which has never been built in this great football town, is not acceptable to them but a large health club was. This smacks of snobbishness by Golf members and plays into the hands of people who think golf should be an elite sport too good to share its facilities or even its car park with other sporting activities. The location of the football pitches is such that they will hardly impact golfers at all. The pitches are the other side of the driving range and in fact most football activity takes place in the winter evenings between 6-10 pm just when there is no one playing the golf course anyway. So there is little risk of our existing golf members coming into contact with the footballers should they not wish to. And as for Car Parking there is plenty of land to add more spaces to the West of the pitches in the unlikely event that the extensive parking accumulation studies carried out by Cole Easdon and agreed with your Highways officer prove to be wrong.
Broome Manor is a much loved “public” leisure facility and I emphasise the word “public”. The objective is to secure its long term viability by appealing to a more diverse and larger demographic than the current narrow and ageing golf member profile. The Adventure Golf, the Football Centre and the enhanced Range will allow us to attract a larger and broader, more diverse clientele. The existing golf members some of whom like to consider Broome to be essentially their own private Golf Club may not like these plans which disturb the status quo and their preferential usage patterns . But Broome is not and never will be a “Private” Golf Club, for as long as we are involved anyway, and change and progress is essential and inevitable. Even if I cannot convince them about these proposals I’m expecting their children and grandchildren will be delighted by them.
I commend these plans to the committee and hope that Members of both parties will support them in accordance with your officers recommendation “
