An historic Black Country publicly owned golf course has been unable to properly begin the start of the playing season after it was targeted by vandals on motorbikes.
The 120-year-old Dartmouth Golf Club at The Vale in West Bromwich, has been forced to use makeshift greens, after bikers churned up the greens on three separate occasions.
The first attack was in February, then there was a repeat incident in March and now a new one this month, which will cost tens of thousands of pounds to repair.
To add insult to injury, the yobs even took the time to cut the razor wire protecting the course and wrapped it around a flagpole on one of the greens they ruined.
Club vice captain Dan Elwell said: “This is just mindless vandalism. They were doing donuts on the greens. There are divots and six-inch grooves in the greens. Over the last three months, we have been subject to three acts of vandalism.
“We have contacted the police on each occasion, who have just given us a crime reference number for each occurrence, but got no actual help in preventing recurrence.
“The fact that they wrapped razor wire around the flag feels like they are mocking us.”
Mr Elwell added: “The land that the course sits on is owned by Sandwell Council.
“In our opinion, the responsibility for security of the site sits with Sandwell Council, but as of yet we’ve not had any joy in securing some sort of permanent measure to stop vandals entering the course.
“The costs each time the greens need to be repaired are into the tens of thousands and can take months to fully recover.
“We are losing money because we cannot charge golfers to use the course as it is at the moment, and our season starts soon.
“We are hoping to get public support for permanent structures to be installed to prevent access to the course because we cannot go on like this.”
Leave a Reply