Golf course no more as house plan granted

A struggling Herefordshire golf club last owned by multi-millionaire Alfie Best can now be converted to a large private home, with its continued golfing use now unlikely given there are “better” clubs nearby.

An application by Brett Walton in December sought full planning permission to turn the two-storey clubhouse at Sapey Golf Club north of Bromyard, now renamed Fairview Court, into a four-bedroom home, with all four on the ground the floor and an extensive living area, dining room and games room upstairs.

Created only in 1990, the club was bought by Mr Best’s Wyldecrest Parks, which also owns the nearby Saltmarshe Castle residential park, in 2017.

Justifying the proposed change of use, an accompanying statement with Mr Walton’s bid said that when it was put up for sale in 2024, the club revealed it “was losing a significant amount of money each year” – confirmed by published accounts for the company.

The statement added the course “cannot viability (sic) function or compete” with other clubs in the area with “better facilities”.

With no other buyers coming forward to take on the site and continue running it as a golf club, Mr Walton bought it last March.

He then sought permission to turn the 80-hectare site into a “tourism and leisure complex” alongside a family home in the rejigged clubhouse.

But in September county planners rejected the bid, saying its was “fundamentally lacking in the necessary detail”.

Mr Walton then submitted the current, more modest proposal.

With no objections on highways, ecology or water supply grounds, or from parish councillors or the public, planning officer Ollie Jones has now concluded that there was “no realistic prospect of its viable re‑establishment” as a golf club – which the council did not view as a loss to the county in policy terms.

Securing the long‑term use of a redundant building and avoiding its unnecessary demolition meant the proposed change was “justified and acceptable in principle”, he concluded.

Full planning permission was granted.