Ayrshire THE pOST’S pICTURE Of THEWEEK
Golf’sfuturemodel South Ayrshire Council recognises the outstanding assets we have in our Golf Courses.
We want to ensure that golf is friendly and welcoming to all; everyone who plays on our courses has an enjoyable experience; we enhance the visitor economy by attracting visitors to South Ayrshire to play on our fantastic courses.
We also want to support the development of golf, women’s participation and younger people progressing in the sport.
Our aim is to ensure that golf is accessible to all and we present our golf courses and clubhouses to a consistently high standard using environmentally sustainable practices.
In order to deliver on our intentions, the council has established a Member/ Officer working group to develop the council’s strategy for golf.
Considerable discussion has taken place already regarding representations from local golf clubs playing competitions over the public courses.
The group has also considered responses that were provided to both golf clubs and individuals contacting Golf South Ayrshire through our “Listening to you” customer service and directly to Elected Members.
A Frequently Asked Questions document has been posted on our website that addresses almost all the points raised and provides a clear, honest and transparent response to the issues raised. ( www.golfsouthayrshire. com/frequently-asked-questions/)
Unfortunately, a small number of people continue to present false and misleading information in the public domain.
Some clubs have taken action by writing to us to disassociate themselves from the actions of these people who are attempting to represent the wider majority when they do not have a mandate to do so.
Of particular concern to these individuals is the establishment of the new South Ayrshire Golf Club.
This club was established to allow men, women and young people to join a family friendly club that promotes the sport of golf in an inclusive way.
So far, over 180 people have joined this club.
The council allows around 30 clubs to play on our golf courses and of these, 22 are men only golf clubs.
One club enjoyed privileged, protected tee times which no other club benefited from.
However, we want to ensure that every club has the same rights and entitlement to play on our public courses and equality of access is something which we want to protect to demonstrate our commitment to fairness and equality in the sport.
The golf service does not run on a profit-making basis. The council subsidises the golf service and between 2012/13 until 2019/20 this subsidy amounts to £2.5million.
The Member/ Officer working group, which has representation from all political parties, is now considering what a fair future operating model for golf should be.
A detailed course by course analysis is being developed and a draft strategy will be presented to the Council’s Leadership Panel for consideration in June 2021.
If the draft strategy is approved by Leadership Panel, the council will then enter public consultation with the final strategy presented to a meeting of the full council towards the end of 2021.
The golf service has had to adapt to the ever-changing position in relation to compliance with Government guidance on Covid-19.
We are delighted that during 2020/21 we had our highest number of golf memberships as people took advantage of our flexi-season ticket and enjoyed playing on our courses.
Officers are monitoring the current arrangements for tee time booking; visitor use of available tee times and the present 10-minute tee time interval in relation to the changing Government protection levels.
Some golfers would like to see the tee time interval reduced to seven minutes.
However, many golfers are enjoying the freedom of play that the 10-minute interval which allows for a quicker playing time.
There is no evidence yet that the 10-minute interval is impacting on tee time availability.
We will continue to monitor this, and an analysis will be presented to the Member/Officer Working Group at the end of May.
We understand that some golfers are keen to be involved in the development of golf in South Ayrshire and we welcome this.
We would ask for your patience during this time to allow us to monitor the impact of the current arrangements and request that, should you require to communicate with staff in the golf service, you do so respectfully.
We recognise that the past 18 months have brought significant change in all our lives and that for some, further change is unwelcome.
We aim to work with all golfers to ensure golf is fairer for everyone using our courses.
Sent on behalf of South Ayrshire Council
SACGolf-someanswers Regarding some of the letters printed recently relating to the provision of golf services in South Ayrshire, perhaps the following will be of interest to those contributors.
In 2019, SAC received a VAT rebate of approximately £2.4m, of which £1.22m was directly attributable to VAT on golf fees.
Of that £1.22m SAC will put back just £78k into a single one of its eight golf courses, (the long overdue renovation works to Dalmilling clubhouse).
The cost of providing showering facilities may be debatable but it wouldn’t be stretching credibility to have thought £78k could have comfortably covered it along with the new paintwork and toilet refurbishment.
The remaining £1.14m has gone into the provision of playparks and equipment, outdoor gyms, beach volleyball, woodland walks, water sports, and grants to Troon Juniors Football Club.
SAC also set aside £200k for the proposed golf academy, despite previously agreeing that this private venture should be “cost neutral” to the council.
While not suggesting some of these amenities are not welcomed or needed, given the recent statements from councillors that golf is a nonstatutory requirement and non-golfing taxpayers may be unhappy with SAC spending money on it, it should be noted that SAC have decided to spend over a million pounds, (collected solely from golfers), on similar non statutory requirements with absolutely no public consultation.
As previous letter contributors have mentioned, unlike golf none of these areas that are receiving cash bring in as many visitors or generate as much income as golf.
Perhaps people in glass houses?
Another letter contributor questions SAC’s claim that golf has been subsidised.
Recent figures from SAC indicate that the deficit for golf between 2012 and 2016 was £2.094m and between 2016 and 2020 it was £487k.
Why golf was allowed to run at an average deficit of half a million pounds a year for years needs to be answered.
As the contributor questions, was it simply because it was badly run on SAC’s part or, was it because SAC recognised that despite running a deficit, golf was actually assisting income generation from other areas such as visitor fees, tourism, hospitality, etc.
After all, it’s not as if the deficit came as a sudden surprise to SAC as they must have budgeted for it every year, so perhaps there was an underlying reason for letting it run?
With the stated deficit being significantly reduced in recent years a generous person could suggest this
has been down to the refurbishment of clubhouses and catering facilities and / or better organisation from SAC.
On the other hand, a cynical person may be more inclined to view the recent near 40 per cent increase in charges and the scandalous retention of the 20 per cent VAT equivalent on golf fees as the main reasons.
As a final note, while Golf South Ayrshire has come in for a lot of flak recently, none of the above can be laid at their door as there can be no doubt that the golf section would have gladly welcomed a larger share of the VAT rebate than the £78k they received.
All of the above decisions have been councillor led.