Historic 100-year-old UK golf course is SET TO CLOSE
Derbyshire golf course set for permanent closure and to be turned into a nature reserve.
The historic and once popular Pewit Golf Course in Derbyshire is set to be closed by the council and turned into a nature reserve, according to a report in the Derby Telegraph.
Pewit Golf Course, on the outskirts of Ilkeston, is going to be closed by Erewash Borough Council four years before its centenary.
The report claims the course is costing the council and taxpayers "tens of thusands of pounds a year in losses just to keep it open."
Despite golf's growth up and down the country during the Covid pandemic, the club reportedly lost just shy of £45,000 in nine months from June 2021 to February this year.
It is understood that just eight people a day were turning up to play golf on the site during that period, and as a result total income was just shy of £8,000.
"The golf course was uneconomic pre-Covid-19 and, despite the efforts made, post-pandemic this situation is worsening with golf members and casual users declining," read an officer's report.
"The scale of the financial shortfall is such that income levels would need to increase by manyfold in order just to break even.
"The running costs of the course are expected to rise significantly in the coming years due to increases in the national living wage, fuel costs and wider inflationary pressures."
The course has been in operation dating back to 1926 and the council has owned the particular site since 1921.
The latest news will come as a huge setback for protestors who fought long and hard to keep Pewit Golf Course open to local golfers.
Particularly after council leader Carol Hart last year said it would be a "very big if" that the course would be closed for good in March 2021.
A council report on turning Pewit Golf Course into a nature reserve will be debated on Tuesday June 7.
