Maidenhead Golf Club vote to move to Winter Hill site

Members of Maidenhead Golf Club voted decisively in favour of moving to the Winter Hill Golf Course in Cookham last night.

MGC has been ‘in advanced talks’ to move to the site, which its chairman said was ‘a good chance’ for the club, given that its current course is set for hundreds of new homes.

In February, it was announced that the John Lewis Partnership (JLP), which owns the Winter Hill course, is looking to close up by the end of April and sell the site.

A golfing charity has said it is ‘prepared to step in’ to save the Winter Hill course from closure, sitting in opposition to MGC’s plans.

JLP later announced that it would be putting the site on the open market.

MGC has been talking to its members about the advantages of taking this opportunity – with a view to having a members’ vote on April 12.

At an extraordinary general meeting on Wednesday evening, 92 per cent of the vote went towards moving to the site, if that is an option.

It is by no means certain – the next step will be to win the bidding against other interested parties.

Chairman Paul Louden says he doesn’t know how many others are looking to purchase the site but the club is ‘hopeful’ for its chances.

“Things went very well [at the EGM]. That was an extremely good result. There’s been a lot of effort gone into working on this, so to get that result was very satisfying indeed.

“There were one or two questions about who owns the land – nothing very substantial, nothing we haven’t dealt with before.

“Nothing is certain – we will see how it goes. We’re in a position where members have passed [the vote] and if John Lewis were to take that up, they can be assured that we’re fully committed to it.”