There was standing room only at St Luke's Primary School Hall last night as well over two hundred people, including local residents and many members of Swinton Park Golf and Country Club, heard the full background to a potential sale for housing development on the site.
Just over a week ago, the Salford Star revealed how Bellway Homes had offered around £30million for the Club and that investors had voted to accept the deal subject to planning permission being granted (see here).
Last night, the full minutes of the Club's AGM in January 2017 were handed out, which dealt with the relinquishment of control to those investors by 155 members who believed that they were saving the golf club and country park.
Club member and chairman of the public meeting, Dave Marsh, drew people's attention to a statement in the minutes from the Club's 'Mr Chairman' who "said that the whole object of the plan was to keep the Club as a golf club, not for anybody to make money from it".
The members who attended the 2017 meeting were also told, the minutes note, that "if the members did not make the decision to approve the proposed course of action this would mean the end of the Club."
The minutes also show that £1.2million was supplied by investors, supposedly to save the Club from financial ruin. With a £30million offer from Bellway Homes, each £1,000 invested would now be worth possibly just under £30,000.
In the minutes, one member "stressed that each investor wished to help save the club". That presumption has now come under much, er, stress, in a deal that Dave Marsh, said was driven by "self interest and greed".
He asked members who were present at the public meeting whether any of them would still vote to transfer the Club if they knew now what they didn't know then. Not one of them would vote to relinquish control now.
If Bellway can get planning permission from Salford City Council, the golf and country club could end up, he added, as "the biggest housing development in Salford", while the whole episode showed "nothing short of contempt for members".
Many local residents had also come to oppose any sale of the site for housing, citing loss of green land, potential congestion and harm to wildlife. Local councillors and election candidates were also out in force, but they couldn't speak due to 'purdah'. The audience was made aware, however, that Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, had written to the Club, asking for clarification on the sale and adding that "the City's starting position will be that that this well-established golf course should remain as a golf course..."
The site is not listed for development in any of the Council's planning policies, although the Club's AGM minutes from 2017 show that Peel Estates (part of Peel Holdings) owns around one quarter of the site, and neither green belt, golf courses nor green space has stopped them attempting to build in the past.
Also present at the meeting were representatives from the Save Our Duncan Matheson Playing Fields campaign and the Saving Our Neighbourhood group in Swinton, currently dealing with Bellway Homes' development on Campbell Road.
One of the Saving Our Neighbourhood group addressed the meeting, giving an insight into how Bellway Homes operates, using legal threats to try and thwart local residents' protests (see here).
It was decided to move the Save Swinton Park Golf and Country Club campaign forward, with help from both residents and members, and to write to the investors, asking them to revoke their decision to sell the Club and to keep it as a golf club.
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