The future of The Leicestershire Golf Club has been thrown into doubt after its local council refused permission for a care home to be built on land it owns.
Leicester City Council’s planning committee rejected the application to build a 72-bed care home on a parcel of land at the golf club, as the site is on protected green wedge land – a planning designation designed to stop urban sprawl and maintain open land between Leicester and Oadby.
Ashwin Mistry, president of the golf club, said he was “totally disappointed” with the decision, adding that due to inflation and depleted reserves, the club had been borrowing cash from members, increasing fees and reducing staff to stay open.
The club had backed a bid to sell the land, off Gartree Road and Stoughton Drive, to Morrison Community Care, arguing that giving up one percent of its land would help secure the future of the other 99 percent.
Jenny Joannou, a Conservative city councillor and member of the council’s adult social care panel, told the hearing the need for care provision outweighed potential harm to the green wedge land.
She added: “If we don’t get this, Leicestershire Golf Club will go under. And it is the jewel in the crown in Evington. Everybody knows it, everybody loves it.”
The developer argued the site would have created up to 100 full-time jobs, added £3m to the local economy each year, and prevented bed blocking in hospitals, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Nadir Khan-Juhoor, from the developer, said the care home could have been operational by 2028 and that demand for care services was going to increase.
Councillors said they were “confused”, weighing up the need for care against the need to protect the green wedge.
Green councillor Patrick Kitterick warned granting planning permission could set a negative precedent for further development.
He said: “It’s a question of do we want green wedge policy that will stand up or fall over every time a good and laudable aim comes forward?
“Absolutely, there is a need for care homes in the city. If it were the only available site in the whole city, I would have a different opinion about it. But there are other sites.
“We’ve heard the golf club is in financial difficulty – what’s not to say that if there is more financial difficulty, it gets eaten away piece by piece?
“If we show that this won’t stand up, this committee will be faced with people not just nibbling away at this green wedge but other parts.”
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