Over two hundred people have attended a public meeting on the 23rd of April to try save Swinton Park Golf and Country Club.
The meeting was arranged after it was discovered that Swinton Park Golf and Country Club’s owners had approved a sale, that is subject to planning permission.
The owners are a group of members that invested to the save the club in 2016.
The meeting was held at St Luke’s Hall in Swinton with more than 200 attendees, comprised of members and residents.
“The communities of Salford need to band together to stop this development before it even gets to the table,” said Carol Boyce, who is the Chair of Saving Our Neighbourhood.
“This is the last green space left in Swinton South”.
“Swinton Park Golf Course provides an essential barrier to the East Lancs, and a place to walk away from the mayhem of urban living. [It is] proven to be important for mental and emotional health.
Saving Our Neighbourhood is an organisation campaigning to keep development off the Swinton Fields.
More green space snatching in Salford. Swinton Park Golf Club – last barrier between residents and one of 10 most polluted roads in UK is at risk. Wildlife from Campbell Road Fields went there to escape Bellway – now BW want this. “Pending Planning Permission” Not this time!
— Saving Our Neighbourhood (@SavingOurNeigh2) May 2, 2019
Campaigners says that building work could cause problems in the community. Problems with increased traffic, pollution and strain on schools and medical facilities are cited.
My Boyce continued: “Our community was devastated to hear that Swinton Park Golf course has apparently already been sold in a deal with Bellway for £30 million ‘subject to planning permission’, as ‘Bellway is their ‘preferred developer’.
“As an organisation we have a lot of experience dealing with Salford Council’s planning department and this news is very worrying indeed.
Last year a planning application was submitted by Bellway Homes to build houses on Campbell Road Playing Fields in Swinton.
Carol Boyce, who stood as Independent in the recent local elections said: ” My experience of dealing with Salford Council’s planning department for the last year trying to mitigate the Bellway build on Campbell Road Fields was a huge part of my motivation to stand as an Independent in these local elections”.
“The council’s planning department have a record of approving developments on open space / green space that do not provide the kind of housing that Salford families need, while at the same time removing the very thing that could mitigate air pollution on the East Lancs – named as among the worst pollution in the UK.
“There is a fundamental contradiction in the Council’s claim to be for a greener city and the million trees project with the rate at which they allow rampant development of those open, green spaces, which includes felling hundreds of mature trees”.
Swinton Park Golf Course under threat from Bellway “pending planning permission”. I don’t play golf but know the barrier it makes between the rest of Campbell Fields and the East Lancs. Walking along the edge it feels a million miles from the congestion and I can breathe the air! pic.twitter.com/M4IJ5KGYyj
— Carol Boyce Independent (@cboyce4SwintonS) April 26, 2019
Swinton Park Golf and Country Club is more than 98 acres of land, which dates back 1926.
There are additional facilities like a restaurant and function rooms which serve purpose for the community.
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