{"id":78484,"date":"2025-08-19T19:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T19:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/78484\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T19:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T19:41:13","slug":"royal-birkdale-golf-course-expansion-plans-approved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/78484\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal Birkdale Golf course expansion plans approved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Elliot Jessett<\/p>\n<p>Local Democracy Reporting Service<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755498308_869_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/78842780-76cf-11f0-841b-3d31b3a72b3a.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"EPA a golf course, with a sandy bunker in the foreground. On the left there is a large stand, approximately half full of fans. Above that, there is a small TV gantry for cameras. To the right of the stand, a large white building is pictured. On the course, there are several golf players and caddies in the distance.\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>EPA<\/p>\n<p>The Open Championship will be held at Royal Birkdale in 2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Plans to build a new practice area at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport have been approved despite &#8220;overwhelming public opposition&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">R&amp;A Championships Limited golf events company has been seeking to extend the practice area ahead of The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The company proposed making part of the open land linked to Birkdale Common open for golf course use with plans including a hitting tee, new fencing and the diversion a public right of way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Birkdale resident David Marsden said approving plans established &#8220;a very worrying precedent that our public parks are at the disposal of commercial interests&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Bullying tactics&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Mr Marsden said there was &#8220;overwhelming public opposition to this application&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">He added: &#8220;R&amp;A has not come close to justifying why it is essential for it to take over part of our public park.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;I would urge the committee not to bow to R&amp;A&#8217;s bullying tactics and its ridiculous claim that failure to commence work by September could put the whole Open tournament at risk.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">There was no representative from R&amp;A at the meeting.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755498308_869_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1de5c2f0-7ce4-11f0-8302-b340557d621c.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"LDRS Sefton Council's planning committee convened at Bootle Town Hall\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>LDRS<\/p>\n<p>Plans were approved at Sefton Council&#8217;s planning committee meeting<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Sefton Council&#8217;s planning team recommended the proposals should be approved, stating The Open was &#8220;a very significant benefit to the borough&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;The last time it was held here in 2017, it attracted over 230,000 visitors,&#8221; the report said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">It said the development would &#8220;help to improve the quality of the golf course and ensure that it remains in the position to attract world class events such as The Open&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The planning team said the space taken &#8220;would be less than one hectare while the overall space within the common is in excess of 20 hectares&#8221; and the proposal &#8220;will include realignment of the public right of way, ensuring continued access to the common&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">The elected members at the subcommittee meeting at Bootle Town Hall on Monday approved the application.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elliot Jessett Local Democracy Reporting Service EPA The Open Championship will be held at Royal Birkdale in 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-78484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}