Angry local residents voted overwhelmingly to oppose the Hoylake Golf Resort plan at a public meeting last night.
More than 100 people crowded into West Kirby United Reformed Church for the two-hour meeting, at which a wide range of concerns were expressed about the plans to build the 350 acre resort, largely on Green Belt land.
Plans are in development to build a new Jack Nicklaus-designed championship golf course, a new municipal course to replace the current Hoylake municipal course, a hotel, spa, golf academy and some 150 luxury homes.
The meeting was organised by John Hutchinson, who has been an outspoken critic of the project. Mr Hutchinson chaired the debate, confessing that he was “100% biased”, but claiming that he had been unable to find anyone who felt sufficiently unbiased to take the chair.
“I have called this meeting tonight because there is too much that we all don’t know,” he said. “We haven’t heard anyone speaking anything of any use and nobody has told us what we want to know.”
Wirral West Labour MP Margaret Greenwood was in the audience along with local Conservative councillors Gerry Ellis and Geoffrey Watt, but no council officers were present to answer questions from the audience. Cllr Ellis explained that this was because they were not allowed to take part as they were in pre-local election purdah.
Mr Hutchinson revealed that he had been involved in the development of a golf resort in the past, and said that he had been told that the aim was to keep all the golfers’ money within the resort, leaving no benefit for the local community.
“I was also told that anything that didn’t support the game of golf was against the game of golf, and was therefore to be excluded. The green staff were to do everything they could to keep the greens clean and free of unwanted wildlife.”
He said he did not see Hoylake getting any benefit from the golf resort, and added: “I don’t see the roads around the resort area being able to cope first of all with the construction traffic and then visitor traffic.”
Among the environmental concerns, he said, was that the plan was to build the resort on a flood plain. He said a huge amount of topsoil would have to be taken away and replaced to create drainage for the site.
Audience member William Lawson, who said he had 50 years experience in the golf course industry, contradicted this view, saying nothing would need to be removed from the site. “If you are going to build a golf course and there is water there you will be delighted, because you can build beautiful lakes with fountains.
“I have no axe to grind over this project, but it will never overflow. That site is perfect, and it is very easy with modern construction methods to drain a site.”
Hoylake resident Paul Nelson said he was concerned about the traffic that would be generated by the proposal to build 150 new luxury houses on the development.
“These would be expensive houses where people would have two or three cars. I would like to ask the council what consideration has been given to the impact of that traffic on the local road network.”
A woman in the audience, who did not give her name, added: “You can’t get a doctor’s appointment in Hoylake and Meols now for love or money.
“The local schools are full and children in our own area can’t get into our schools. There isn’t the infrastructure to support the extra homes.”
Councillor Ellis (Hoylake and Meols) said he agreed with a lot of the concerns being raised by Mr Hutchinson and members of the audience, but pointed out that studies were currently being carried out and no detailed plans for the project had yet been produced.
“Don’t worry, the local councillors will not support this plan if, when the detailed plans come up, they haven’t answered our questions. I don’t want to see anything happening that will jeopardise Hoylake.”
Margaret Greenwood said she had asked the council to produce detailed plans showing where the new homes would be built, and three dimensional drawings of the planned buildings, but had been advised that the detailed plans would not be available from the joint venture company until the environmental, topographical and ecological surveys were completed.
Asked what her own views of the plans were, she said: “My concerns are around building on Green Belt, particularly with concern to climate change. We have to look after our ecosystems and we all have a responsibility to do that.”
But she said she was also aware that there were people who would be hoping the project would provide job opportunities.
The meeting agreed to set up a committee to plan further steps in opposition to the golf resort, including the launching of a petition to garner more public support.