Crowborough Beacon Golf Club Natural England Grant
Crowborough Beacon Golf Club Ltd (‘The Golf Club’), voted the 68th best course in England, is proud to announce that it has been accepted by Natural England into the higher level stewardship scheme. This is testament to the way in which the club and the green staff have maintained the course, particularly over the past few years.
The higher level stewardship scheme, which provides grant aided funds to landowners, will enable the Golf Club to step up the process of restoring the Common to its former heathland nature. The Golf Club will receive appropriate grant funding over a period of ten years beginning in 2014.
Natural England recognises, as does the Golf Club, that the delicate nature of heathland should be maintained so that the biological diversity of the Common is protected for the benefit of all who wish to use the Common. This objective necessarily rules out for the foreseeable future any use of the Common other than for golf. The work in restoring the heathland will be undertaken by the green staff of the Golf Club together with its contractors and volunteers.
In conjunction with the objective of restoring the heathland nature of the Common, the Golf Club is actively in discussion with ESCC how best to facilitate and enable access and risk free use of the common by the community.
It is understood that ESCC will implement the CROW act in 2019 under which, as confirmed by DEFRA, that part of the land utilised for playing golf, initially calculated to be just over 60% of the land owned by the Golf Club, will be “excepted” from public access other than by approved rights of way. It is therefore the wish of the Golf Club that the remaining part of the land which is not utilised for the playing of golf is made available to the community for air and exercise through approved rights of way and new permissive routes.
The Golf Club, although owning the unfettered freehold of the land, has no wish to restrict members of the public from safely accessing and enjoying the common. It is very much hoped that the restoration of the heathland, coupled with the clear identification of the areas utilised solely for golf, will enable all users to mutually enjoy the benefits of the common.
Should anyone require more information please visit the Official Crowborough Beacon Common website (www.cbgc.co.uk) where information regarding all aspects of the common may be found, including all relevant documents relating to ownership of the common.
Ray Jackson
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