Star date: 18th February 2020

PUBLIC MEETING HEARS CITY MAYOR DRAW BATTLE LINES

Last night, at a packed public meeting of the Save Swinton Park Golf Club campaign, Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, warned of a potential planning battle over the current recreational designation of Club's site.

The meeting had heard that Nuvu, a private arm of social housing company, Your Housing, had tendered an unconditional offer of £10million for the Club, following the withdrawal of a conditional £30million offer from Bellway Homes.

Full details here...

The ongoing battle to Save Swinton Park Golf Club has taken another turn, a public meeting heard last night, as Nuvu, a private arm of social housing company, Your Housing, had tendered an unconditional offer of £10million for the Club.

Originally Bellway Homes had offered £30million for the Club, conditional on receiving planning permission for up to one thousand houses on the site, but, following the controversy surrounding the deal, the company had withdrawn.

Now, Nuvu has lodged a £10million bid in the midst of swirling legal and planning battles, with pressure being applied for this company to withdraw its offer too.

The meeting heard that the current directors of the Club had lodged one set of accounts showing a £30,000 loss on a £1.1million turnover and a lack of viability to keep the Club going – while another set of accounts apparently showed the directors themselves taking out £30,000 in 'emoluments', creating this scenario.

Meanwhile, even though the Club was deemed an Asset of Community Value to protect its status, the Club's directors are stating that this was established after the agreement with Your Housing was in place and therefore is irrelevant to the deal. If a building or site is an Asset of Community Value it cannot be sold without the community having the chance to bid for it within a six month period. 

Behind the scenes there's also a legal challenge looming, with campaigners trying to resurrect previously dissolved companies from 1948 and 1996 as part of this. The current campaign team has also tried to buy back the Club from the current directors for £1.5million, representing a 22% return on their investment.

Finally, a letter was read out from Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, to the Chief Executive of Your Housing Group, setting out Salford Council's attitude that "the land is currently designated in our Local Plan as recreational land, and that for any future development proof will be required of the need for change of use...

"The Council's position, and my own, is that we would continue to favour retaining use of the site for its current purpose and/or continued function as a publically accessible site of recreation and green space for the people of Swinton" he added "Furthermore the Council intends to defend our current planning designation, which has been consulted upon through the Local Plan with residents and communities..."

The position was reiterated as the Mayor spoke later in the meeting, urging people to "work together to protect the designation and the need to prove that the site is not surplus to recreational requirements...

"We have a battle on our hands" he added "...to ensure the designation is retained..."

During a short open question period, audience members drew attention to the fact that there are other golf courses in the area and the need to answer this issue; that there is a need to look at the full accounts of the Club to get an understanding of whether it is a going concern or not, and that local residents need to get active in the campaign to stop any development on their doorsteps.