The club’s membership had been dwindling for several years, and the cost of maintaining the course had become unsustainable.
Crowlands Heath golf course sits within a vestigial piece of green belt, straddling the boundary between the London boroughs of Barking & Dagenham and Havering. Surrounded on all sides by existing residential areas, its contribution to the green belt fell away long ago, and the site is ripe for reuse.
Despite covering an area of around 23 hectares, the site was typical of most golf courses, with monocultural grassland covering most of its surface. A boating lake at the southern end was used as a driving range but had also been allocated by the council as a site important for nature conservation.
Through rewilding and repurposing of the existing ponds within the course we were able to demonstrate that—even with comprehensive development—the proposals could deliver biodiversity net gain of at least 10%; potentially, significantly more. Most of the existing mature trees around the periphery of the site, as well as many of those within it, would be retained.
As well as new homes and social infrastructure, the proposals provide for an expansion of the sports pitches serving the adjoining secondary school.
