We golf club members wanted to stay

Following Gavin Ames’ comments (Opinion, September 16), I am responding on behalf of Maidenhead Golf Club.

In 2014 at the first formal meeting between RBWM and MGC, help was promised in finding appropriate land for relocating MGC.

This was subsequently withdrawn.

Further meetings indicated that RBWM planned to take the land back and build houses.

In 2016 MGC concluded a surrender agreement.

It was made clear by RBWM that we had no future at our current site.

The surrender date would be May 31, 2023.

We now had seven years to identify a new home for MGC.

The agreement depended on the Borough Local Plan (BLP) being approved which has still not happened so we have been unable to progress our search for a new home.

RBWM eventually tabled the revised offer in August 2021 to push back the surrender date to December 31, 2025.

Many members were in favour of rescinding the original agreement and continuing for the duration of our lease to 2039.

RBWM left us in no doubt that if this occurred, they would immediately obtain a Compulsory Purchase Order to eject MGC as soon as possible.

Legal advice was that the outcome would be uncertain and expensive.

At the general meeting, members voted for the new offer.

We want to stay as long as possible in the current location but have been pushed all the way by RBWM.

We have been forced into our current position with the council intent on a process that can be very vindictive.

There is only one party that wants to build on the greenbelt and it is not us.

There is money at the heart of this but it’s RBWM who are desperate for a payout.

We are not an elitist club made up of rich people.

I suggest you do some forensic research around the mess that Maidenhead is in before your next piece on this subject. PAUL LOUDEN

Chairman Maidenhead Golf Club