Dear Supporters,

If you want to help save the Green Belt and Stop the Hoylake Golf Resort we need you to spend 10 minutes this weekend writing to all the Councillors.

You may have seen the “charm offensive” in the local media in the last few day by Jim Anderson the director of the Nicklaus Joint Venture Group, the developer of the Hoylake Golf Resort. This media release is timed to gain as much support as possible for the golf resort project in advance of the Extraordinary Council meeting to try to “kill off” the Golf Resort Project on the 25th February.

Laughably, Jim Anderson insists that this “controversial scheme will be good for the green belt”. He also says that the project will be a “win-win” and it is a project “for literally everyone in the area”.

Unbelievably, he proudly points to his “track record” of delivering a similar project in Machynys, Llanelli. We know that his “track record” in Llanelli, is in fact very dubious, he promised jobs and tourism and to “put Llanelli on the map”, he received grants from the Millenium Commission and the Welsh Tourist Board of over £1million. He had the full support of the Council. Yet the promised Hilton Hotel never materialised because of “flooding concerns”. The Hoylake site is also on a flood plain.  However, he did build an estate of executive houses at Llanelli, before putting his construction company into voluntary liquidation, owing over £1million to local tradesmen. His separate company which sold the houses was unaffected.

The Celtic Manor resort in South wales is situated close to the M4 / M5 junction, it is seven times the Hoylake site and has 4 hotels, 3 championship courses and a 5000 delegate conference centre under construction. Worryingly, Jim Anderson states that the Celtic Manor Resort in South Wales started off with only 70 beds and says “who knows what can happen here? Has Mr Anderson given himself away here?…the Hoylake hotel is to initially have only 90 beds but perhaps he plans to get his hands on that valuable publicly owned Green Belt land and once he has the planning permission for the hotel and the luxury housing estate of 160 houses and 40 apartments then the precedent has been set and they eventually plan more developments.

Interestingly, the original plans were for two separate club houses, one for the championship course and one for the municipal. Mr Anderson now boasts how there is “one club house for all”. Why have they abandoned plans for a separate clubhouse for the municipal? – is it because, as many suspect, they ultimately plan to develop the municipal course for housing, especially as the Council are currently trying to “offload” other municipal courses as they are no longer viable. We know that many suspect that the Council is planning housing on Brackenwood golf course.

When asked about concerns about traffic, Mr Anderson avoids the question and points to the £5million that it will cost to remove the electricity pylons across the site as he thinks they are a blot on the landscape – conveniently forgetting that this resort and housing estate will be a permanent blot on the landscape.

He goes on to say that the housing numbers were not his fault and an “independent” accountant told him how many houses he had to build, stating that it is only 4% of the site – that is still a significant development,  the size of about 8 average sized football pitches, and doesn’t include the size of the resort hotel and various other buildings.

Mr Anderson blames any “negativity” and public opposition to the resort because of “misinformation”, however he goes on to make statements which themselves could be deemed as “misinformation”.

Firstly he states that he can “enhance the habitat” for the exisiting species that use the land and goes on to say that it is “poor grade farmland” – he doesn’t seem to understand that the species use the land BECAUSE it is undisturbed farmland. A golf resort, even with habitat creation, will have lighting, noise and disruption with a busy road built through the middle of it, it will be totally alien to birds who currently live on the undisturbed farmland. The construction phase is planned to go on for years, upto 8 years for the ongoing house building. It will disrupt the migratory pattern of the birds that use the site and they may never return.

Also it is not low grade farmland. This statement is repeated often by the developer and the Council. However, the Wirral Society obtained further information from the Soil Association and Landis.org. They also sought the opinion of Cranfield University who produced the Soilscapes website and are sponsored by DEFRA. Rather than being poor farmland, the Soilscapes websites indicate that much of the land is productive, suitable for dairying or beef and some cereal or feed production. Cranfield University were also of the opinion that the soil could even be graded as ALC Class 1 if better irrigation was introduced.

Furthermore, Mr Anderson has stated “the project will not require any further public money to get underway”. This is misleading as the Council plan to spend up to £17million on the new roads for the resort either by grant funding or by using the money from selling the land to the Developer. This road, once constructed,  will link up with the housing estates also planned on the Green Belt in the Saughall Massie / Greasby area.

Mr Anderson says of Jack Nicklaus "He knows this course will be special because, when he’s dead, he knows that all the best players in the world who will have heard of Jack Nicklaus will be staying at a Jack Nicklaus golf course when they come to play the Open at Royal Liverpool, and that’s special for him" - well this resort may make Jack Nicklaus happy when he's dead  but what about the people of Wirral and their children who have to live with this destruction of our Green Belt and our environment whilst they are alive?

The Golf Resort will be discussed at the Council Meeting on the 25th and the Conservatives and Libdems have submitted motions calling for the resort to be scrapped. Phil Davies, the Council Leader, is due to leave the Council in May and he sees this golf resort as his legacy project and refuses to listen to the people of Wirral. We anticipate that Phil Davies will try to convince Councillors to delay any decision on the golf resort until after the Developers “Funding and Phasing Plan” is signed off next month. The Council are refusing to make the “Funding and Phasing Plan” public and they are not even making it available to all the Councillors for scrutiny. Only Phil Davies and the Cabinet will see it and approve it.  We are concerned the “Funding and Phasing Plan” may have financial agreements attached to it which will “tie in” the Council to financial penalties should they decide to pull out once Phil Davies has left.

So, please, we urge you to spend just a few minutes this weekend and send an email to all the Councillors  – you can write as much or as little as you have time for – just a couple of sentences would be sufficient,  stating your opposition and asking them to vote to stop the golf resort.

The Councillors emails are below – just copy and paste them

Thank you for your support.

STOP THE HOYLAKE GOLF RESORT - SAVE THE GREEN BELT - ONCE ITS GONE ITS GONE FOREVER!

phildavies@wirral.gov.uk, jeanrobinson@wirral.gov.uk, tonycottier@wirral.gov.uk, christinamuspratt@wirral.gov.uk, jerrywilliams@wirral.gov.uk, elizabethgrey@wirral.gov.uk, briankenny@wirral.gov.uk, juliemcmanus@wirral.gov.uk, patcleary@wirral.gov.uk, jeanstapleton@wirral.gov.uk, joewalsh@wirral.gov.uk, irenewilliams@wirral.gov.uk, maryjordan@wirral.gov.uk, cherrypovall@wirral.gov.uk, adamsykes@wirral.gov.uk, georgedavies@wirral.gov.uk, stevefoulkes@wirral.gov.uk, gillianwood@wirral.gov.uk, chriscarubia@wirral.gov.uk, philgilchrist@wirral.gov.uk, davemitchell@wirral.gov.uk, tomanderson@wirral.gov.uk, davidburgessjoyce@wirral.gov.uk, wendyclements@wirral.gov.uk, andrewhodson@wirral.gov.uk, kathyhodson@wirral.gov.uk, lesrowlands@wirral.gov.uk, tonycox@wirral.gov.uk, gerryellis@wirral.gov.uk, andrewgardner@wirral.gov.uk, ronabbey@wirral.gov.uk, sharonjones1@wirral.gov.uk, anitaleech@wirral.gov.uk, berniemooney@wirral.gov.uk, thomasusher@wirral.gov.uk, janwilliamson@wirral.gov.uk, bruceberry@wirral.gov.uk, chrisblakeley@wirral.gov.uk, stephenwilliams@wirral.gov.uk, allanbrame@wirral.gov.uk, pauldoughty@wirral.gov.uk, stuartkelly@wirral.gov.uk, phillipbrightmore@wirral.gov.uk, katecannon@wirral.gov.uk, mikesullivan@wirral.gov.uk, angeladavies@wirral.gov.uk, samanthafrost@wirral.gov.uk, tonynorbury@wirral.gov.uk, billdavies@wirral.gov.uk, moiramclaughlin@wirral.gov.uk, chrismeaden@wirral.gov.uk, adrianjones@wirral.gov.uk, christinejones@wirral.gov.uk, paulstuart@wirral.gov.uk, tonysmith@wirral.gov.uk, stuartwhittingham@wirral.gov.uk, davidelderton@wirral.gov.uk, jeffgreen@wirral.gov.uk, geoffreywatt@wirral.gov.uk, ianlewis@wirral.gov.uk, lesleyrennie@wirral.gov.uk, paulhayes@wirral.gov.uk, pathackett@wirral.gov.uk, tonyjones@wirral.gov.uk, christinespriggs@wirral.gov.uk, jobird@wirral.gov.uk