Golf club that was nearly converted into a Premier League facility to expand

A Leicestershire golf club that was nearly bought by a Premier League football club and converted into a training facility is, just five years later, hoping to expand.

Forest Hill Golf and Conference Centre’s operator Sparsis Leisure has submitted plans to build a 98 room hotel and spa.

About five years ago Leicester City failed in a bid to buy the venue for about £2.2 million and convert it into a training ground.

Now Sparsis Leisure is seeking outline planning for its new proposals months after another, bigger hotel scheme, was turned down.

It would see scrubland next to the club turned into a luxury hotel resort with spa facilities, and includes wider plans to refurbish the site.

A planning application states that the golf course was an established venue for wedding functions, private parties and business conferences, but income was badly affected by the pandemic.

Forest Hill Golf and Conference Centre. Image from Facebook

The owners said the hotel plan, dubbed ‘The Club at Forest Hill’ scheme, aimed to help secure the site’s long-term future.

The application states that the vacant brownfield land, a former landfill site that was last used as a nine-hole golf course and is now disused and overgrown scrub land, would be transformed as part of efforts to clean up “potential environmental health hazards and eyesores”.

The group said the project would also complement upgrades undertaken around the existing clubhouse.

The application says: “The Club at Forest Hill will be designed to reflect high quality features, well integrated within their surroundings [and] well suited to its purpose as a place of golf and leisure coupled with a relaxed atmosphere for functions and meetings alike.”