Friends of Basildon Golf Course are pleased leader of Basildon Council Tony Ball has started to consider the possibility of the course becoming a country park.
In this way, the future of the legally-protected wildlife and established hedgerows would be assured, the course could continue and residents would be spared the nightmare of over 20,000 lorry loads of building waste being dumped there.
It is, however, unfortunate this option, which would be in the interests of the golf course, the wildlife and the residents, wasn’t even considered during the council’s unseemly fervour to make a gift of the course lease to two businessmen from the other side of the country.
They were granted planning permission which would allow them to earn a fortune dumping almost half a million tons of landfill on it. The council then spent a fortune of council taxpayers’ money keeping their company afloat.
Furthermore, we dispute Mr Ball’s estimated cost of £100,000 a year to support the golf course as a country park. Like so much else to do with this scheme, it appears a figure has been plucked out of the air to avoid addressing the issues.
It is a matter of record that the council turned down attractive offers from reputable companies, none of which wanted to dump landfill on the site, and all of which offered to pay the council.
So where does Mr Ball’s figure of £100,000 come from?
John Toplis
Secretary
Friends of Basildon Golf Course
The Leys
Basildon
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