Walmer club land a valuable asset

A couple of years a go there was talk about the Walmer Country Club selling off a portion of its land on Victoria Drive to a crowd who wanted to build a school.

I can’t remember the actual selling price but an amount of R10m sounds about right.

I then wrote a letter to The Herald (published on March 4 2019) and suggested that instead of trying to re-establish the course, by improving the greens and building a smart new clubhouse they should close the course down and use the money to pay off debt and try and “buy” life membership at the other two clubs (PE & Humewood) for all their existing members.

Main reason was that I didn’t believe there was enough space for three profitable 18-hole courses in town.

The response from the committee and some members was swift and furious — how could I be so arrogant as to suggest that their club had no future?

The deal fell through and the club continued to function in some form over time.

We as “seniors” refused to play there because of the major security risks and the fact the that the taps had been removed from the showers to stop them being stolen.

A friend of mine who used to help out with the course has sent me photos of the workshop and equipment which is now useless so it is obviously no longer used as a golf course and the area should be deemed public open space — I am sure that the neighbouring cows enjoy the lush, uncut fairways.

It is obvious that other subsequent deals have also not materialised.

Originally the club must have paid the metro a very nominal amount for the recreational facilities because there were also very nice bowling greens and squash courts, but I certainly doubt that there are any of those “old” members still walking those fairways.

The bowlers lost their club years ago.

There are, however, many old loyal WCC members who contributed their own funds to keep the club running.

The metro is wasting a very valuable asset as that area could provide plenty of space to build the same good-looking flats as those next door.

It would then surely make sense to liquidate the club, ascertain what members contributed to keeping the club afloat in the old days and refund them in full.

It would not cost too much and the metro would then have reclaimed a very valuable asset.