Work on doubling golf course starts
Major work to double a Stafford golf course in size is now under way after a 15-month wait.
Construction workers are busy extending Stafford Castle Golf Club by nine holes to become a full size18-hole course.
Work to put in a temporary access road for construction traffic on Castle Bank began at the Newport Road site last month and work to extend the course began in earnest in recent weeks.
The £2 million expansion scheme, which proved controversial with neighbouring residents when it was approved by planners in November 2007, will also see a new £1million two-storey clubhouse put in place which is larger than the existing facility.
The 100-year-old golf course will be covered in 420,000 cubic metres of inert waste, which will raise the ground level by between 40 and 50cm, and the existing access road will be widened.
Much of the waste, expected to be construction rubble, will be piled at the M6 edge of the course to form a sound barrier and it will take 70 lorries, arriving every weekday for two years, to transport the waste onto the site.
Once completed, the club will be leased to Luddington Investments – a development firm which owns five 18-hole golf courses around the country. It will lease the club for 40 years and retain existing members.
The existing clubhouse is a dilapidated wooden building but the new one will comprise two two-storey structures linked by a completely glazed central zone. When the scheme was approved in November 2007, developers pledged to protect any archaeological features on the site.
