Golf Course Architecture - Issue 64, April 2021

52 MUNI C I PAL GOL F group started private discussions with councillors and other local movers and shakers, and the council fairly rapidly started an about-turn, issuing a statement that it was clear there was still an appetite for golf on the Hill, and inviting new bidders to come forward to operate the golf course. In late January, the council announced that a group of local investors calling themselves the Cotswold Hub Company had been appointed and would take over the course on 1 April. The new operators are preparing (at the time of writing) to take over, and it appears that golf on Cleeve Hill has indeed been saved. Further north, in Derby, a similar campaign is still being waged in an attempt to save the municipal Allestree Park golf course. Opened in 1930 and designed by Harry Colt, Allestree sits within the largest open space in Derby, a 130-hectare park surrounding Allestree Hall. The council, which owns both the land and the hall, is seeking to sell the latter, with a view to it becoming a wedding and event venue. As at Cleeve, local golfers, with golf writer Andrew Picken prominent among them, have mounted a strong campaign to save the course, including a petition with almost 26,000 The survival of the municipal course at Allestree Park in Derbyshire, originally laid out by Harry Colt, is now under threat