RESIDENTS living close to Balmoral Golf Club say they have been kept in the dark about plans to build homes on the site, following a decision by members to sell the 75-acre course and relocate four miles away.
Members of the cash-strapped Lisburn Road golf club have voted to move to a new 149-acre championship course on the Ballylesson Road in Drumbo. The new course will be designed by former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley and will have a clubhouse.
The move from the South Belfast site will ensure the club’s financial stability, however, residents living in the streets surrounding the golf course say they were unaware that the golf club – which has been on its current site since 1914 – was considering relocating and selling the land for housing.
As part of the deal there are plans to build hundreds of new homes on the prime property location.
“This has come as a shock to neighbours,” said one resident. “You’d have thought that we’d have been kept up to date with such developments. But no, we were kept in the dark the whole time."
Last year we reported that Balmoral Golf Club had plans to sell 1.5 acres of their land adjacent to Priory Park for housing, however, in recent months it had come to light that the club had asked each of its 450 members for a £1,000 loan as financial pressures grew.
Balmoral Golf Club Council is due to meet on Wednesday to discuss further the decision to relocate from Lisburn Road. No-one at the golf club was available for comment.
