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Fighting fund to block golf course plan
CAMPAIGNERS have raised £16,000 to fund their landmark legal challenge against the £1million revamp of Basildon Golf Course.
Protesting residents have now lodged a High Court application for a review of the planning permission granted by Basildon Council.
Jack Barker Ltd was given planning permission in Sept-ember to build a new clubhouse and driving range and reshape the course with 120,000 tonnes of building rubble.
Since then, opposition from nearby residents, who fear it will be like a landfill site during the work, has mounted.
If a judge accepts the application, made this week, it could proceed to a full High Court hearing.
Campaigners believe the council, which said there were no grounds for refusal, had a string of valid reasons for rejecting the plans.
John Toplis, secretary of Friends of Basildon Golf Course, said he had researched the activities of the developer in other parts of the country and found planning permissions at other golf courses had been refused.
These included Staffordshire County Council last August objecting to the use of 150,000 tonnes of spoil for improving Tamworth Golf Course, because it would have been on "a scale similar" to a very large rubbish dump.
Mr Toplis said: "The council took the decision to approve this scheme without involving Essex Council Council, the waste authority.
"They went ahead in spite of concerns and objections from organisations such as the Campaign to Protect Rural Essex and Basildon Natural History Society." At a fundraising event last week, campaigners raised more than £3,000 for the legal battle with an auction and other activities. They had already raised £13,000.
Mick Toomer, chairman of the group, said: This is nothing more than a landfill operation thinly disguised as golf course improvements.
"If it goes ahead the dust will pose a serious health risk to local residents, many of whom are elderly and already have respiratory problems.
"Nobody, let alone people on pensions, should have to go to court to protect themselves from their own council. We have been forced into this."
Council leader Malcolm Buckley said: "We don't think there are grounds for a challenge.
"But it is up to individuals if they wish to speculate with their money.
"Now it will be down to the court to decide."
Ron Maden, director of Jack Barker Ltd, declined to comment on the legal action.
4:31am Wednesday 16th January 2008
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CommentPosted by: Steve, Leigh on 12:48pm Wed 16 Jan 08
As someone who played on this golf course earlier on in the year I can heartily endorse the need for improvements. I think it's great that a private businessman is willing to invest in this and to suffer dust? for a few days seems a bit of a whinge. Consider the dust/disruption that would ensue should it get sold off for a new housing estate! Seems that some people doth protest too much! It is a large piece of green land so how local residents are going to be affected escapes me. I certainly didn't notice too many adjoining houses to it!
As someone who played on this golf course earlier on in the year I can heartily endorse the need for improvements. I think it's great that a private businessman is willing to invest in this and to suffer dust? for a few days seems a bit of a whinge. Consider the dust/disruption that would ensue should it get sold off for a new housing estate! Seems that some people doth protest too much! It is a large piece of green land so how local residents are going to be affected escapes me. I certainly didn't notice too many adjoining houses to it!
Posted by: Golf Player, Vange on 1:12pm Wed 16 Jan 08
It isn't a public park where people can just roam around.
Strange that most golf courses do this without a whisper from the local community.
Must be an election coming with the LibDems and Labiour jumping on yet another band wagon.
Its a golf course where people pay to play golf.
Rather it be a success and make a profit than sold off to the property developers
It isn't a public park where people can just roam around.
Strange that most golf courses do this without a whisper from the local community.
Must be an election coming with the LibDems and Labiour jumping on yet another band wagon.
Its a golf course where people pay to play golf.
Rather it be a success and make a profit than sold off to the property developers
Posted by: John Toplis, Basildon on 6:42am Thu 17 Jan 08
If only it were dust for a few days! Phase 1 will involve 8,000 lorry-loads over 16 months and is just over a third of the total volume. Mounds and bunds will be 6 meters (20 feet high) and within 25 metres of the back gardens of homes - that is higher than a double-decker London bus. We would welcome genuine improvements such as improving the greens - we just don't want to be living next to a landfill site with trees and wildlife destroyed and flooding and other problems arising from the works.
If only it were dust for a few days! Phase 1 will involve 8,000 lorry-loads over 16 months and is just over a third of the total volume. Mounds and bunds will be 6 meters (20 feet high) and within 25 metres of the back gardens of homes - that is higher than a double-decker London bus. We would welcome genuine improvements such as improving the greens - we just don't want to be living next to a landfill site with trees and wildlife destroyed and flooding and other problems arising from the works.
Posted by: Trevor Rose, Nottingham on 5:16pm Sat 15 Mar 08
Six years ago we defeated our city council's planning application to take allotments situated in greenbelt for industry. Their application lacked objectivity, was pre-determined and in breach of the local plan. With their partner the Jack Barker Golf Company they intend importing 120,000 of landfill waste into the environmentally protected Bulwell Hall Park.
Six years ago we defeated our city council's planning application to take allotments situated in greenbelt for industry. Their application lacked objectivity, was pre-determined and in breach of the local plan. With their partner the Jack Barker Golf Company they intend importing 120,000 of landfill waste into the environmentally protected Bulwell Hall Park.
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