The Chairman introduced this report by thanking everyone who had attended the visits to the four golf courses which had taken place on Tuesday 13 August 2019, including the Councillors, officers, user groups and course members. There had been a Workshop held on Wednesday 28 August 2019 and the report provided a summary of the key discussion points and findings from that Workshop. He thanked everyone who had taken part in that event and those who had given evidence. The Workshop had been convened for Scrutiny Members to have further discussions with officers and relevant stakeholders around the future provision of municipal golf courses in Wirral.

Members had valued the opportunity of visiting the courses and speaking to the staff there. The Members had seen how passionate the staff were about municipal golf and benefitted from help provided by the Council. They had noted how a lack of suitable equipment – such as suitably sized grass cutters – made their work harder and required extra manpower.

RESOLVED:

That the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee approve the findings of the Municipal Golf Courses Scrutiny Workshop, and reaffirms its commitment to the four municipal golf courses and recommends to the Cabinet Member that:

1)  the municipal golf courses at Arrowe Park, Brackenwood, Hoylake and The Warren courses be retained in-house;

2)  the Council commission a ground survey to be carried out at each course and the capital programme be amended to carry out what comes out of the survey over the next eight years to ensure that each of the courses is brought up to standard;

3)  e-capital money that was frozen be used in consultation with grounds maintenance staff to provide appropriate equipment;

4)  a consultative user group be set up to meet once a quarter with each of the golf courses to discuss issues and problems; and

5)  there be no reduction in paying capacity on any of the courses.