Golf course hopes land in the rough

The snow-covered contours of the Beal Valley golf course with the Higginshaw industrial estate in the background

Players may have to wait five years to tee off

After 15 years and millions of pounds, the Beal Valley golf course will stay a grassy open space, attacked by vandals and off-road motor bikes, if plans for the site are postponed next week.

Golfers will have to wait five more years to tee off if a delay in finishing the site is approved by councillors on the planning committee.

Developers Casey Group, which has been tipping and shaping the area since 1994, is applying on behalf of Oldham Council to postpone completing the course until January 13, 2015.

The land between Cop Road, Bullcote Lane and Ripponden Road was chosen for a municipal course by the previous Labour group on Oldham Council and tipping began in 1994.

Tipping was extended in 2000 after the Liberal Democrats took power and changed the licence to rule out dumping noxious waste. Compensation to Casey’s and other costs were said at the time to be over £6 million.

Last year the Lib Dems took control again and decided not to commit the council to creating the course — but to lease the site back to Casey’s to let the company develop a nine hole course and driving range for a £750,000 fee.

The latest delay is blamed on the recession and the effect it has had on golf course use and memberships.

The site should have been a golf course by next month.

By then it should have been seeded, planted and landscaped, and ready for play.

The landfill is now finished, and there are embryonic tees, greens and fairways in the valley.

But the area also attracts vandals and off-road motorbikes, officers say. They warn: “Until there is an active use, together with associated supervision, it is likely that any advanced planting and footpath surfacing will be difficult to establish.

“It would not be viable or perhaps desirable to insist that the golf course is completed in the previously agreed timescale.

“The site will return to grassland and the footpath network will mean that there will be continuing public access and its appearance will be improved.”

The application comes after the Chronicle revealed in October that the credit crunch had scuppered the golf course plan, with a Casey’s spokesman blaming the recession.

He added: “Clubs used to have waiting lists of 400 people. Now they are advertising for members.”

He said some holes could be developed for a practice course.