Golfers left under par

LONG-standing plans to create the Beal Valley Golf Course have been hit into the rough.
Golfers will have to wait five more years after Oldham Planning Committee agreed to vary planning conditions to delay its completion until January 13, 2015.

Work to restore the site, including laying out, seeding, planting and landscaping of the golf course to a playable standard, was supposed to have happened by Wednesday next week. But after 15 years and millions of pounds, the land, between Cop Road, Bullcote Lane and Ripponden Road, will remain a grassy open space prone to attacks from vandals and off-road motor bikes.

Developers Casey Group have been tipping and shaping the area since 1994 after striking a deal with the Labour group on Oldham Council to turn the land into a municipal course.

Tipping was extended in 2000 after the Liberal Democrats took power and changed the licence to rule out dumping noxious waste.

Last year the Lib-Dems 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 landfill is now finished and there are embryonic tees, greens and fairways in the valley — but the area attracts vandalism.

The delay is blamed on the recession and the effect it has had on golf course use and memberships. The applicants say clubs used to have waiting lists of 400 people but are now advertising for members.

A report by officers to councillors said: “This time delay will allow a phased development of the course, bringing on extra playing areas, as the need arises and market forces allow.

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

Councillors insisted on adding a condition for landscaping to take place earlier to transform grey areas and mounds of earth into greenery and make the site as picturesque as possible.