PLANS have just been announced to merge Darlington’s municipal golf course with a neighbouring club in an attempt to save Darlington Borough Council up to £83,000 a year.

Staff from both Stressholme Golf Club and Blackwell Grange Golf Club emerged from a meeting held at Stressholme moments ago where they were told about the proposal, which would see part of the existing Blackwell course sold to build executive housing.

As they came out from the meeting staff were told not to speak to the press about the briefing.

Some of the details of the plan are still unclear, but it is thought that the privately-run Blackwell Grange Golf Club would move to Stressholme to run a joint club.

It is not known whether the staff of both clubs would merge or if there will be redundancies.

Darlington Borough Council owns Stressholme outright and provides a subsidy to cover running costs, which has been steadily increasing each year as maintenance costs rise.

The Northern Echo: Blackwell and Stressholme Golf Clubs

The authority has identified Stressholme, which includes an 18 hole course, a driving range and a clubhouse, as a site where savings of up to £83,000 a year could be made as the council tries to find £25m of budget cuts in the next three years.

Blackwell Grange Golf Club is based on two separate pieces of land, either side of Carmel Road South, part of which it owns and part of which it leases from the council.

Under the proposal, the council owned land, which surrounds the separately-owned Blackwell Grange Hotel, would be sold to developers for executive housing.

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