Woolton village’s members-only golf club is to hold a special meeting next Tuesday to decide if the 18-hole course should be sold in what could be a multi-million pound windfall.

Members of the course, on either side of a narrow lane linking Woolton with Hunts Cross, would move to the nearby –council-owned – Allerton Golf Course, according to the meeting's agenda.

But it seems the city council and developers Maghull Group, who now run the one-time municipal course on a 25-year lease, are in the dark about the move.

Both insist Allerton is to remain as an affordable golf course.

At Woolton, with annual fees up to £1,050, and a strict dress code both on the links and in the clubhouse, non-members are charged £25 for a round of golf – twice the cost of a round in Menlove Avenue.

Nobody was prepared to spill the beans at Woolton golf club when Liverpool Confidential made contact today.

“There’s no point harassing the staff, they are not going to tell anybody anything,” said a gentleman at the club, adding that something may be said after next week’s meeting (btw, we didn’t harass anybody).

The extraordinary general meeting of the Woolton Club is to take place at St Edwards College, West Derby, starting at 7pm.

Chairman of the board, Simon Edge, says: “All members are strongly encouraged to attend what could be the most important subject the club has considered in recent history.”

On the agenda is just one time, to note the action by the board of directors to accept an option to negotiate the sale of Woolton Golf Club. The option, says the agenda letter, "is to remain in force for a period of up to three years and provide a payment of a non-refundable sum to Woolton Golf Club.”

The letter adds that it "facilitates the consideration of relocation" of the club to Allerton Golf Course. The board is seeking membership approval for board recommendation to form a sub-committee specifically to see the project through.
Voting members of the club will be given the opportunity to express their wish in a postal ballot the following week.

In November, 2014 the council decided to seek an operator for what was the Allerton Municipal Golf Course. A 25-year agreement was signed with the Maghull Group who formed an offshoot company, Allerton Golf Trading Ltd, to run Allerton as what is the city’s last public golf course.

Maghull announced some time ago that it was proposing major improvement works at the Allerton course’s clubhouse.
At the time the city council said the popular municipal course had been secured thanks to the deal which would net the council £234,000 per year.

The contract would leave the council as owners of the course, with Maghull’s offshoot company taking over the operation of the course and continuing to provide affordable and accessible ‘pay and play’ golf.

A city council spokesman said today: “This issue is entirely a matter for Woolton Golf Club members. We have a 25-year lease arrangement with Allerton Golf Trading Ltd for affordable pay and play golf at Allerton Golf Club which we are committed to.”

So what could happen to the Woolton course if it is sold? There is little doubt in the mind of veteran Lib Dem councillor Richard Kemp who fears the course would be swallowed up by a huge housing development.

He has put questions to assistant mayor and culture cabinet member Wendy Simon, asking: “What will happen to the existing golfers at Allerton who were given specific assurances only two years ago that golf at the club would be both affordable and paid for at a reasonable level when they turned up to play.

"There is no way that most of the golfers who currently use the (Allerton) club could afford to pay the prices advertised on the Woolton website.”