Objections over plan to change former Great Denham golf course greenkeepers compound to business use
Residents have objected to plans to change the use of the former greenkeepers’ compound at Great Denham, arguing the proposal would harm the former golf course site and conflict with planning policy.
Application 26/00428/COU seeks a change of use at the former compound. The proposal relates to the former greenkeepers’ compound, the applicants are seeking permission to change the site from its previous use to space for offices, research and development, or small-scale industrial processes.
One resident wrote to Bedford Borough Council to say the proposal relies on a “self-created” claim that the facility is redundant following the closure of the golf course in 2020.
They argued the compound cannot be separated from the wider former golf course, which they said was purpose-built to support the recreational use of the land.
And they said the applicant has failed to provide “up-to-date, objective evidence” that the facility is genuinely surplus to community requirements, and claims the application conflicts with national planning policy.
Another submission to the council’s planning portal related to concerns over a watercourse/drainage feature within or adjacent to the site, which has been “left blocked and unmaintained since the closure of the former golf course in 2020”.
This, they wrote, “resulted in localised flooding affecting nearby residential areas”, contradicting the applicant’s claim that the land is being actively managed.
The Golf Needs Assessment submitted with the application was also criticised, with a resident claiming it uses “circular reasoning” by excluding Great Denham from its baseline because the course is closed, then using that closure to argue it is no longer needed.
A comment from a “proud citizen of Bedford” said the application “strikes fear in me for the future of our beautiful town and for the legacy we will leave our future generations”.
While another wrote: “I am unsure how any reasonable person looking at this could come to any other conclusion that if the land was used as per the original planning decision then it would now be a thriving golf club as before.
“This planning submission is nothing more than a cynical and clumsy manipulation of the actual realities solely driven by the desire for personal gain with no consideration for the locality, the communities and absolutely no respect for past and current planning.
“This should be a relatively easy ‘firm decline’,” they wrote.
The golf course closed in October 2020.
The applicant was approached for a comment, but did not respond at the time of publication.