MUCH is being said about the proposed golf club sell off and development of the first and 18th holes.

Golfers are calling the local residents Nimbys, when in actual fact the golfers live in Torquay or Paignton, well out of the way of the problem.

However, the facts are that a considerable number of properties are being proposed on the first and 18th holes, together with a new clubhouse by the already existing practise ground near Churston Church.

Golfers claim that there will be no impact on traffic. How they can justify this is beyond me as golf club traffic is moved via Bridge / Bascombe roads or Churston village, and new housing (the addition) is sited where the existing clubhouse is and will therefore see the increase in traffic.

Roger Matthews wrote in this newspaper that Churston Golf Club had applied for similar permission for far fewer houses some 27 years ago, and had been refused on the basis of the traffic at that time. What has changed? The traffic is far worse. Residents in Brixham have to endure queues already tailing back from Monksbridge lights to Windy Corner. Golfers claim that is holiday season traffic.

Brixham has already endured development at Sharkham, The Cricket Club, and now even Wall Park camp is on the horizon, yet Churston Golf club cannot understand why residents are complaining.

The golf club, it is alleged, is heavily in debt. If that is the case, then it needs sorting ASAP. However, although they need to repay that debt, they should not inflict their problems on the rest of the community.

I understand the playing members were told at a meeting, their club was in trouble and asked if they would vote for a sell-off providing a new clubhouse elsewhere. I can well understand why they voted for the proposal.

An alternative, I suggest would be the development of the single acre near the practise ground, which I understand is part of the sell-off deal, and which could have provided ten houses and with planning consent, and could be sold for about £1.5million to £2 million. If this is the case, then I am sure Churston villagers would not have complained too much about that low number of houses and the golf club could have saved itself easily.

I cannot elaborate on what I suggest, or even the practicality of it. However, I do know that if this was the case, the club debt would disappear and the 'range war' would cease.

To cap it all the golf club had a meeting with council officials and RAGS to discuss the present proposals. During that meeting the council officials noted there were many complaints against the development and asked where the letters in favour of the development were. Naturally there were none and as a result there is a reported campaign for golfers to write letters in favour of the development.

Might I state that golfers may not be in the majority, residents of the immediate locality have to suffer the consequences of such a development? The whole of Brixham and Churston, however, will suffer for this. Therefore any letters in favour by golfers who are not immediate residents, should be treated with scepticism.

May I suggest the alternative method I have suggested above, that the one-acre is considered as the most viable in all respects?

After all the present clubhouse is only less than ten years old, and was built on the whim of the committee at that time who neither had the money to build it, or owned the lease on the land at that time that it sat on.

It was also built with the assistance of lottery funds, which angered many people at that time.

The alternative even then was to have a refurbishment carried out on the existing clubhouse which as one member at that time (a builder) stated he could have carried this out at a fraction of the cost.

I have endeavoured in this letter to offer a most reasonable solution which involves more openness and dialogue rather than the present situation.

It may be beneficial to all concerned that instead of RAGS having their own meetings, that the golf club convene a meeting at some convenient location such as Churston Grammar School — where meetings have been held in the past — to allow an open discussion with residents.

M. J. WESTWOOD, Penpethy Road, Brixham