Plans for an “absolutely huge” storage barn at a South Gloucestershire golf club in the greenbelt have been approved despite residents’ objections. Councillors granted permission for the 1,500 sq m U-shaped “eyesore” building around a new service yard at The Kendleshire course, Coalpit Heath, amid concerns about noise, fumes, its size and “industrial” appearance, impact on wildlife and danger of stray golf balls from the neighbouring driving range.
Development management committee members heard the 7m-high structure would be used to keep trailers, mowers, fuel and equipment, replacing an existing off-site store which is being bulldozed and replaced with five homes. But residents are angry because they believed planning consent had been granted for the current grounds store’s demolition and new houses at nearby Henfield Farm on the basis that the club would not require a new building and would move the vehicles and machinery into existing facilities at the course.
Cllr Brian Hopkinson (Conservative, Charlton & Cribbs) told the meeting on Thursday, April 13: “What a massive building in the greenbelt, it’s absolutely huge. This situation where they get rid of buildings because they don’t need them for storage of equipment and then you get houses put in there and they come back with this plan which is going to be absolutely terrible, I find this absolutely crazy, I just hate it.
