admission from the Leader of the Council that golf is a declining sport.
This begs the obvious question as to why Wirral Council has already
spent over £1 million on the proposed golf resort in Hoylake and seems
determined to spend even more?
Dear Councillor,
You will recall at the Council meeting on 11 December, Councillor Kathy
Hodson asked a question of the Leader of the Council regarding 'the
amount of income from the Council's municipal golf courses'.
The Leader's response to this question is as follows:
"The Council budget for Municipal Golf (Arrowe Park, Hoylake,
Brackenwood, The Warren, Wallasey Beach and Kings Parade) this financial
year, is £284,800. This is the amount of money the Department of Finance
allocate at the beginning of the financial year from the overall Council
budget, to manage and operate (including the grounds maintenance) the
municipal golf offer. We are targeted to spend £1,155,900 (staff,
premises, transport, supplies, recharges) and bring in, in income
£871,100 …….. leaving a shortfall of £284,800 – the Council budget.
Because of the national down turn in the amount of people playing golf,
our income figures have not met the targets set and according to
November's monitoring figures, we are anticipating that the total golf
income will be short of target by about £180k. This projected shortfall
will have to be met from savings elsewhere within the service/Council."
Golf is merely a convenient catalyst to try and achieve the very special circumstances needed to gain planning permission on Greenbelt. The leader of the council must be delusional or possess a personal drive of sheer, bloody-minded arrogance to believe that the public are falling for his vacuous PR sell.
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