Crowlands Heath Golf Course will be sold to housing company Homes For Life with plans to build more than 1,000 homes on the site, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter
The sale of a golf course for housing in has been approved after Barking and Dagenham Council recieved no comments in a public consultation.
Council leaders confirmed the sale of Crowlands Heath Golf Course to housing company Homes For Life yesterday (Tuesday 24th). The developer wants to build 1,106 homes on the site.
Labour council leader Dominic Twomey said the council could “do nothing else” after a consultation on the disposal received no responses.
Cllr Twomey said: “Sadly no responses were received to the public notice regarding the council’s intention to dispose of the land at Crowlands Health Golf Club.
“I say sadly because obviously we always want engagement – we press for engagement from our residents.”
He added: “We have two options – one is no longer proceed with the disposal, two to continue with the disposal.
“I think we can probably do nothing else than continue with that following the fact that we had no comments at all on the consultation of this.”
The council currently owns the entire golf course at Rush Green, but leases it to Crowlands Heath Golf Club.
Council leaders first agreed to sell the site in October last year. The town hall then ran a public consultation on the sale. This is separate to Homes for Life’s consultation on its development plans.
The council says it placed notices of the sale in the Barking and Dagenham Post and Romford Recorder newspapers. It also posted a copy in the window of the Barking Learning Centre.
The deadline for representations was 27th February. Cabinet papers say the council received no responses by the deadline.
Homes For Life asked to buy the land from the council last year after already reaching an agreement with the club.
It said its plans for a housing development on the site – two thirds of which are in the borough of Havering – include building 1,106 homes.
Of these, it says 60% would be social housing and 40% for “key workers”, particularly NHS staff.
Roughly 230 of the homes would be on the Dagenham side of the site. Proposals also include a supermarket, a lakeside comminity space or cafe and a “green” foot and cycle path through the development.
The council’s cabinet approved the sale unanimously.
However, the development will still need planning permission from both Barking and Dagenham and Havering councils.
Cllr Twomey said the cabinet vote was not “to give a view on any planning merits of that at all – purely the disposal of the asset”.
