Allestree Golf Course consultation
Published: 15 January 2020
Council House at night
Derby City Council wants your views on the future of Allestree Hall golf course.
Allestree Hall is a Grade 2* listed building located within the middle of Allestree Park, Derby’s largest open space and the home of Allestree Golf Course.
The Hall has been unoccupied for over 40 years and is in a poor state of repair requiring an estimated £2.8m in repairs and listed on Historic England’s “Heritage at Risk Register”.
To enable the repair of the Hall it was decided that it and all associated outbuildings should be sold. Allestree Hall was then marketed offering the opportunity for prospective buyers to operate the golf course as well. Following the marketing exercise, a preferred bidder was identified with a proposal to convert the Hall and its additional buildings into a wedding venue.
In September, Cabinet approved the sale to the preferred bidder and this process is underway.
However, the preferred bidders do not wish to operate the golf course and the Council has concluded that there are three options available:
Firstly, the Council to continue to operate the golf course, which would require significant financial investment in new facilities with no guarantee of success. This is not the preferred option.
Secondly, to partner with an alternative provider, similar to the arrangement at Sinfin Golf Course, or finally, to cease operation of the golf course with the course removed and returned to parkland.
At the same September Cabinet meeting it was agreed to launch a consultation on these options and the future of the golf course.
Cabinet also agreed to provide an opportunity for third party organisations to make viable business proposals which offer a sustainable future for the golf course and that if no viable proposals are received, that the golf course would be decommissioned and absorbed into the existing parkland.
The closing date for the consultation (Paper Survey) and for submitting an Expressions of Interest is 12 noon on Monday 23rd March. (read EOI brochure).
A decision has now been made that the Golf Club and its facilities will operate as normal until 30 September regardless of the outcome of the EOI process. It is hoped that the café will also remain open to the general public park users on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Cllr Mick Barker, Cabinet Member for Governance and Licensing said:
It’s really important for us to hear from all those people who have an interest in the future of the golf course and the park in general. The golf course has been operating for many years at a significant loss and we can no longer afford to keep operating as we have done previously. I do hope we can find an operator to run the course in a viable way as we have done at Sinfin and would encourage people to consider submitting an Expression of Interest as soon as possible.