There’s still a place for golf at Allestree

MAY I correct some of the misleading figures being presented by city councillors and others about Allestree Golf Course in the hope that a more realistic approach can be adopted going forward.

The reference to 90 golfers is quite misleading; the course was made available to the wider public of Derby as part of the park when the council took it over and it has remained so ever since until it closed.

The course was being used by significantly larger numbers during its last year of operation. There were six start times per hour from dawn till late afternoon allowing for up to 400 players in a day.

What I believe then happened later on during the lighter nights, the course was flooded with users not being charged. The staff went home at their allotted time and the public took advantage in large numbers. The reality is that the council lost significant sums of money that could have been ploughed back to help maintain the course.

The misleading figure of 90 would appear to have been the number of members of the Allestree Park Golf Club – a minority group who had no control of the course but provided a public service by making their bar available to the wider public to use at weekends.

Their members played a competition on Sundays and, as golfers will know, Sunday is not very busy and therefore they were enhancing the council’s income.

There were significantly more than 90 playing each day during the pandemic.

I have visited the park on a number of occasions since the closure of the course and have never seen a survey being undertaken but my view is that visitor numbers have not changed in any significant way.

This is a good course and has certainly contributed to the growth of golf in the area over many years.

It has contributed large sums of money to the council in that time, unfortunately little was ever ploughed back in leading to diminishing returns.

To encourage people to play, the course needs a level of maintenance and the grass cutting regularly. There are those who think there is still a place for it today but nobody in power seems to be listening.

Alf Fullerton, Derby