Meole Brace Golf Club: Shropshire Council told it will face fierce opposition to any sale plans

Former town mayor David Farmer said that Meole Brace Golf Club should be excluded from council properties currently being considered for sale.

Mr Farmer, who was a councillor in the town from 1992 to 2012, said he was concerned at the potential for the land to be placed on the open market.

He said: "I am very angry that they might be resurrecting this again. Once they have sold off the silver they will have nothing and council tax will definitely go up."

The course was the subject of reported bids back in 2010, with a campaign group strongly objecting to any sale.

Mr Farmer warned that a campaign group would be reformed to tackle any attempt to sell the course.

He said: "Hands off Malcolm Pate and fellow councillors. I accept that the land belongs to the council but it also belongs to all the hundreds of people who play golf there, and is about the only

council facility that makes money. It is also in a green belt area and must be kept as such. We have gone down this route before under Keith Barrow and the protests were loud and clear then."

Councillor Malcolm Pate, leader of Shropshire Council, has confirmed that the authority is reviewing all of its capital assets to decide which are no longer needed.

The Shropshire Council-owned golf club, with a 12-hole parkland course, was the subject of a reported bid of more than £15 million back in 2010.

Councillor Pate said the authority is looking at a variety of ways to support its revenue budget, including selling off some of its assets, although he would not be drawn on specific sites.

He said: "We are looking at a lot of options to raise capital to support the revenue budget and there are several items that we are looking at that we may or may not consider selling."

Earlier this year Shrewsbury Town Council confirmed it was in discussions with the authority about taking on the management and possible funding of several services, including Meole Brace Golf Course.

Mr Farmer urged Shropshire Council to carefully consider which of its sites are sold off.

He said: "Here again, the Shropshire Council are selling their souls to the devil. When they have sold all their assets and they must be nearly there, what will they be left with? nothing, then they will have to put up the council tax to bail themselves out of a financial hole.

"Let the town council run the Meole Brace Golf Course, because in the past the old borough council ran it and made a great success of it."

Shropshire and Shrewsbury Town Councillor Peter Nutting has said he would fight any attempt to sell the course, and insisted that securing planning permission on the site is unrealistic.

He said: ""I think the possibility of getting any planning permission on the golf course would be extremely unlikely.

"I would expect any planning application to subject of a storm of protests and be called in by Government."