Bright Future for Golf Club

Fairfield Golf and Sailing Club at Audenshaw is ready to begin an exciting new future.

Landowner United Utilities and the club are about to submit joint plans for an extension to the golf course and a new mixed use development.

The club is also working with former European Open Champion and PGA professional Andrew Murray to bring further improvements to the course. Andrew, who is also a summariser on Radio Five Live, has worked with the golf club to redesign the course which will create a number of new holes and will extend the par from 68 to 71.

The proposals would bring back into good use an area of vacant former reservoir land which has been attracting anti-social behaviour. If the plans get the go ahead, the development could attract 400 to 500 jobs.

It forms the climax to five years of negotiation between the partners and follows United Utilities’ announcement in March 2005 to extend the club’s lease for a further 50 years.

The proposals include redeveloping the site of the existing club house for residential use. United Utilities will add an additional 17 acres (around half) of the vacant land to the golf club for the extension to the course and for a new club house – and, if the plans are approved, Tameside Council would be approached to consider designating the land as protected urban green space.

The remaining area of vacant land would be developed to include a hotel and conference centre, office and business use and a small retail element.

As asset owner, United Utilities will fund the reconfiguration of the golf course.

Paula Steer, property director of United Utilities Property Solutions, said: “This is great news for Fairfield Golf and Sailing Club and the wider community. As a responsible landowner we want to play a major role in the future of the club and the local economy.”

Golf club president Dave Leonard said “The new proposals for the golf club fill us with confidence for the future. Working with United Utilities and Andrew Murray we will not only have one of the best set ups in Tameside, but one of the best in the region.

“We’re very excited – we see this as a new era for the club and it will regenerate the area for the benefit of the whole community.”
Cllr Kieran Quinn, the council’s executive member for economic services, said: “This is another exciting moment for Tameside. The high quality of this development matches the quality Tameside MBC is looking for in all its developments. I hope the wider community will be able to enjoy this sporting attraction that will also bring new jobs to the area.”

The plans will be formally submitted at the end of July and will put on display at the Tameside Council offices on Wellington Rd, Ashton-Under-Lyne.