This sell-off is a bad deal for Maidenhead

Maidenhead Golf Club has been in existence for 125 years, having been founded by Lord Desborough.

It is an excellent golf course, with well maintained fairways and greens, in a woodland setting.

The golf club has served as custodians of the parkland and provided an income to the council.

There is scope for planting more trees, improved woodland management, rewilding areas of the course and for more community involvement.

Sadly our council has decided that the golf course land, purchased in 1953 to protect it from development, should now be released from our greenbelt and concreted over with 2,000 flats and houses.

This was despite also promising before the last local elections to ‘resist greenbelt release‘, and recognising that we are in a climate emergency.

Threatened with a compulsory purchase order, Maidenhead Golf Club has been forced to give up their lease, and if the Borough Local Plan is adopted at next week's council meeting, the golf club will be given almost £16million of public money to find a new home.

This is a bad deal for the people of Maidenhead whichever way you look at it.

We will lose our green lung, as well as a place to take steps to help our community mitigate against climate change, including planting trees, water storage, biodiversity and amenity.

Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever, but as long as it stays a golf course, our community will have options for how best to use this space in the future.

I, along with many other people in this town, urge our council to reject the Borough Local Plan and come up with a plan that is sustainable and protects the local environment.

MARK LOADER Ludlow Road

Maidenhead