£2 million move to double size of Essington Golf Club

A nine-hole golf course is currently being built at the club in Essington and is due to open at the end of next year, creating 50 jobs. But bosses have now submitted plans to extend it to a full size 18-hole course, costing £2m and creating an extra 10 jobs.

Owner Brian Saunders, from Wood Farm Golf and Leisure, which owns the site, near Wolverhampton, said work is still progressing on the nine-hole course.

Land next to the site has now been bought to accommodate the extra part of the course and if the new plans get the go-ahead, the current 80 acre site will be boosted by a further 88 acres.

Mr Saunders, from Coven, said: "This is a long-term thing and when it is done it going to be an asset and it will create jobs – it is what is needed. It will be a top course. As soon as it is passed we are ready to do the work straight away, we want to get stuck in and get it open."

In February this year, plans for a clubhouse at the course, on Bursnips Road, were approved.

The clubhouse will have a lounge, meeting room, kitchen, and 63 car parking spaces.

Work at Essington Golf Club started in 2008 but its completion date was pushed back due to the downturn in the building trade.

Mr Saunders said today that if the new plans are approved, work would start at the beginning of next year and take around two or three years to complete.

"It isn't such a big job, it won't take as long," he said.

"When we started the first one it was the recession and there was no material about, but things have picked up and we have been steaming ahead."

Parish councillors have held a meeting to discuss the plans, during which concerns were raised about the timescale of the project and a further public meeting to look at the plans in details is due to be held after Christmas.

Essington parish councillor David Clifft said: "They have bought some land next to it and they want to extend the golf course and to become a full size course. They have put a planning application in for the adjacent land.

"The parish council met to discuss it and have got some concerns that the present one has been going on for seven to eight years and they are obviously concerned."