This website has been created to provide further information and generate feedback about plans by Morrison Community Care Group for a new care home on the site near Leamington and County Golf Club.
LOCATION PLAN
The Locality
The site is located to the south of Leamington Spa in an area with primarily residential use (see plan above, site highlighted in red). The centre of Leamington Spa lies just over 2.5km to the north. The site is at the north edge of the Leamington and County golf course, beyond which is open countryside.
The SITE
The site sits on the boundary of the Leamington and County Golf Course with Golf Lane. The immediate area around the course is residential in nature with detached and semi-detached houses.
The existing golf course entrance forms the northern boundary of the site from Golf Lane, and leads into a substantial car park with the club house further west on higher ground.
THE DEVELOPMENT PLOTS
The care home plot does not form any part of the golf course, as shown on the aerial photo above.
As part of the development a new golf academy is to be constructed for the club, at the north east corner of the clubhouse, and the site of this proposal is highlighted in the aerial photo above.
The proposed golf academy is an enclosed building which will be equipped with the latest indoor golf simulator systems, providing three bays that will be used for training, lessons and simulated play on the world’s top courses, a facility open to all in the local community.
The eastern boundary of the site is formed by a large hedge with trees on to Golf Lane. It is intended to retain as much of this planting as possible to minimise the change in environment to Golf Lane.
Development will result in the relocation and upgrading of an old practice green and bunker as part of an overall upgrade of practice facilities at the club.
SOCIAL & ECONOMIC BENEFITS
The development proposed will result in the delivery of significant social, economic and environmental benefits.
The provision of much needed care housing to meet the needs of older people is an important social benefit of the development proposal, and will also result in reduced isolation and loneliness which is a widespread concern for a large section of older people. The development proposal also includes an element of care which is likely to have wider benefits to local GPs and hospitals through a decrease in admissions.
With regards to economic impacts, the development proposal will create local employment, both in the construction phase through the need for local workers and materials and the indirect impacts that this brings, but also significantly in the creation of employment in facilitating the on-site services in the region of around 100 employees.
Furthermore, these employees will bring increased spending to the local and neighbourhood area, thus supporting the vitality of Leamington Spa through the increased use of the nearby services.
PLANNING CONTEXT
The application is properly to be characterised as a proposal for enabling development in order to safeguard the future of the Leamington and County Golf Club.
National Planning Policy (The Framework) makes reference to enabling development in the context of the historic environment. Paragraph 214 states:
‘Local planning authorities should assess whether the benefits of a proposal for enabling development which would otherwise conflict with planning policies, but would secure the future conservation of a heritage asset, outweigh the disbenefits of departing from those policies.’
The Applicants submit that the enabling development will secure the future of the Golf Club and green open space, through procuring the following benefits to the Club:
- Fund essential work (subject to statutory approvals) to ensure water supply security, without which the Club will be unable to provide a golf course that meets the requirements of existing and future members and will therefore become unviable. This project is in line with Severn Trent Water’s strategy to reduce commercial water usage from the mains supply. Part of this crucial project will include significant improvements to drainage to both supply the proposed new water storage and to ensure that the Club can minimise course closures during the increasingly wet winter periods.
- Fund essential works to the golf course and facilities, including the clubhouse. The Club has been struggling to invest in the course and facilities due to stagnating income streams and rising costs. As is shown in the document titled ‘Proposed Sale of Land – Very Special Circumstances’.
- Construct a golf academy adjacent to the clubhouse to provide a state of the art indoor teaching and practice facility for members and members of the public alike, as well as providing a simulator facility enabling participants to virtually play the top courses in the world, a hugely popular activity and proven revenue stream. This will provide an additional income stream for the Club, the funds from which will be reinvested in the course and Club to retain and attract members and visitors.
- Engage more fully with the local community through providing easier access to golf for new starters and an introduction to golf for diverse groups in the community, including children from local schools and physically less able golfers.
- Secure the future of the Club by improvements to ensure that existing members remain satisfied with the Club as well as developing new income streams (including the new academy) to reduce reliance on member subscriptions and to fund future investment.
- Remain competitive with other clubs in its potential catchment area, all of which are competing for a larger slice of the same pie.
Given the above, it is considered that the development of a care home to meet the needs of older people solidifies the principle of development in this area. Further, the application enables the golf club to fund essential works to the golf course and facilities and secure its long term future.