Forum Topic

Perivale Park Golf Course ruined

Without any consultation with the course, the club, or the organisation which runs it under contract (Everyone Active), Ealing Council has placed a pedestrian bridge across the Brent river connecting to a new footpath which runs directly 30 yards in front of the seventh tee. I understand this was co-funded by City Hall. Not only will this be highly dangerous to pedestrians, it has ruined a popular 9 hole golf course which dates back to at least the 1930s. As a Labour-run council, perhaps Ealing feels that golf is a game for toffs and their bourgeois chums. Not so. Perivale Park GC and Horsenden Hill GC (already shut down by the council) were the only local courses where working class and less well-off folks could afford and enjoy a round of golf. One has to question the council's commitment to health and leisure in the borough. Furthermore, I wonder how many library services could have been saved with a similar amount of investment as this pointless project? After over 15 happy years at PPGC (2014 as Club Captain), I have left the club, heartbroken. Unable to afford private club prices, I've effectively given up the game. Thanks for nothing, Ealing Council.

Mike Paterson ● 2448d29 Comments

Top suggestion. Entitlement junkies.

Mike Paterson ● 2431d

They will have to take their chances then. Maybe you get a free shot if you hit a cyclist.

Simon Hayes ● 2432d

its par for the course!!The new path is for a cycle track ( I think), there is a bridge with no steps at the moment which will meet with Ruislip Rd.However surely our wonderful council must be negligent to put a path by a golf tee

Peter Yale ● 2432d

Yes, PPGC floods every year or two. I understand it's deliberate to direct the water away from housing. Terrible mess afterwards. There are several golf courses next to the Brent, including Perivale, Ealing, presume Brent Valley. I've heard there are certain places along its path where hundreds of loss balls get trapped. Re danger: I took a direct hit a few years ago - from the captain! - struck on the right shoulder, ricochet onto my right ear. It was from the tee so it was going a bit and did smart for a while.

Mike Paterson ● 2434d

Not quite. The victim would have to be reasonable in their actions leading up to the main event, so must the golfer.As long as the victim didn't breach any venue rules they have an excellent chance of winning in court.

Dennis Bailey ● 2436d

But surely people have the main duty of care toward themselves and in not putting themselves in harm's way, or at least making an informed decision?A golfer hitting a ball and maiming someone just by accident whilst playing golf on a golf course, although it might put them off the game for life,would have no real reason to reproach themselves.

Keith Iddon ● 2436d

Now i'm not a lawyer but whoever showed lack of duty of care, like putting a footpath through a golf course would be accountable. As Ealing council own both the footpath AND the golf course as well as well as paying for it all they are well and truly in the frame. Throw in that the the general legal understanding is that once a right has been granted then a duty of care exists and Ealing council will be liable. Duty of care requires three principles (house of lords appeal in the Caparo Industries PLC v Dickman case, 1990) 1. harm must be reasonably foreseeable as a result of the defendant's conduct.2) the parties must be in a relationship of proximity.3) it must be fair, just and reasonable to impose liability.If someone dies by being hit by a golf ball, a somewhat remote chance, i should point out that corporate manslaughter charges would probably follow should a duty of care claim be lost.

Dennis Bailey ● 2436d

probably the maintenance of the path could be sponsored by a firm of accident lawyers!!

Peter Chadburn ● 2436d

Makes me wonder who would be held responsible, legally, if someone was unlucky enough to be badly hurt.The understanding should be that the path is used on the understanding that it could be dangerous.

Keith Iddon ● 2436d

Actually, the golf club land owes its existence to the River Brent's nasty habit of flooding, a problem that wasn't resolved until the 1960 to 1970 period with extensive construction work that also included two weirs at Hanwell and Brentford. Nature being a bitch, the only thing that the construction work did was to move the flooding to Brentford, and boy did they get flooded. From living memory the golf course and school field on the other side of the Ruislip Road regularly flooded due to the sharp bend there. The golf course was a way of using unusable land. No right of way existed before the golf club because it was just too dangerous. I know this from memory because i was there. Golf balls are like bullets. and getting hit by one or the other can have the same results. Building a public footpath through the middle of a gulf course is like building a footpath through a gun club firing range. It's stupid, it's foreseeable, and will ultimately lead to Ealing council being sued.

Dennis Bailey ● 2436d

Thanks for this. Yes, you would think. I think both our committee and EA probably failed to confront Ealing about this. Many clubs are blighted by pedestrian rights of way but these are historic and stand on the basis of who was there first. Not the case at PPGC. Per squirrels, I understand they make good eating. But seriously, there's great bird watching to be had on a round of golf. PPGC has nice woodpeckers for example.

Mike Paterson ● 2436d

Why not just point out to the council that as this is obviously down to a design that involves stupidity, and in that it's kind or in your face a bit, any injuries from being smacked by a golf ball will be expensive for them. As putting a public right of way through an existing golf course is a bit brainless, whatever it is that their on i want some. I'm not a golfer either, i think it's a boring game unless you allow me to replace the ball with a squirrel.

Dennis Bailey ● 2438d

Thanks. It would seem so. I note on this plan that the path goes through a clearly wooded/scrubland area that I referred to, above. Well, they've ripped all that stuff out - razed it. Very green, I must say.

Mike Paterson ● 2438d

Could this new footbridge and the other work be part of the planned Greenford to Gurnell Greenway project?See http://www.perivalepark.london/?p=19123

Peter Evans ● 2445d

Thanks, Keith, good point. I estimate I paid around £800 - £1,000 pa when you include green fees, match fees, subs, lost balls (!) etc. Many PPGC members cough up a similar amount.  Per Hounslow: ha ha, exaggeration for effect, be assured. But the point stands.

Mike Paterson ● 2446d

Added to the fact that golfers have paid to be on the course and it's that money which goes toward the upkeep of it and of what will be a footpath that is of no use to them.Mike, I have never come across the words 'Hounslow' and 'paragons of common sense' in the same sentence before now.

Keith Iddon ● 2447d

Hi Tania, Per the layout on this part of the course. There was no way through previously - wilderness - which is why they had literally to bulldoze it all away to make the path. Further more, the who-came-first argument only stands up if we discover there was a pedestrian footbridge over the  Brent in days gone by that someone blew up like the Bridge on the River Kwai. So, no, I don't think so. Everyone (in)Active are utterly useless. No surprises, therefore, that they are Ealing's leisure provider of choice. Why should walkers trump golfers? Well apart from morally, so they don't get a golf ball through the head, that's why. PPGC players are all insured, so nothing to worry about.Although Ealing is my stomping ground, I live one property outside the borough. Thank God. Hounslow have their faults, but they are paragons of common sense compared with your lot with your massive ugly wheelie bins and all the rest of it. ;-)

Mike Paterson ● 2447d

I don't know the layout of the golf course, but it may be that this was originally a footpath which the golf course ignored and the council are simply reinstating. If you have a look on the OS maps, you can see footpaths marked - worth having a look. I've walked many golf courses and footpaths near to playing areas they are usually clearly signed as to where you look and how to behave. If it's directly in front of the tee, I'd have thought if there's someone walking, the golfer would just wait? As long as you can see the person then you'd not hit the shot, right? (I don't golf, so that might not make any sense.)I wouldn't think hundreds of people are going to suddenly start using Perivale Golf Club to walk about on, but it seems odd the club don't know about it. Everyone Active work on behalf of the council - they're linked to keep the fees down, so you'd have thought they might know something.Also, Ealing Council bang on about having no money... seems an odd thing to do if this is the case.

Tania Bapuji ● 2447d

This is irrelevant. At least an acre of bushes, bramble, small trees etc have been removed to the left of the tee and all the way around to the back of the eighth green thus fundamentally changing the nature of the seventh hole, and not in a good way(so much for tree planting mentioned elsewhere in this thread!) One wouldn't expect a non-golfer necessarily to understand this. I hope you're right about the walkers, we'll have to see. But I can't really see how Brent Valley having this justifies PPGC also having to suffer.

Mike Paterson ● 2448d

Apologies Mike for my misreading your intent.I hope the path does not have too much negative impact on the enjoyment of the course for golfers.

Keith Iddon ● 2448d

It's amicable most of the time, although there are exceptions.

Keith Iddon ● 2448d

It appears that the footbridge over the River Brent is not open yet so maybe a little early to assess the impact for the golf course? Does not seem to be an obvious route that would be busy unless the local schoolkids make use of it.There are footpaths running through Brent Valley Golf Club and, I think, walkers and golfers coexist amicably.

Philip Coe ● 2448d

P.S. 'Not ideal'. I don't think you play golf!

Mike Paterson ● 2448d

I am (was) a regular player at PPGC (once a week or more). I have never seen hide nor hare of any ranger or notices. We have a modest club house with notice boards. Nothing there. Neither our committee nor circa 100 members were aware either as far as I know. This thing was presented to our committee by Everyone Active a matter of weeks ago as a fait accompli. I would say this was deliberately kept from the golfers, for obvious reasons.

Mike Paterson ● 2448d

No sarcasm intended, Keith. Genuine thank-you. Is this what social media has done to us? :-)

Mike Paterson ● 2448d

Whilst I agree that the path position is not ideal details of all the work being undertaken has been available on the council website since last September if my memory serves me correctly. There have notices around the park which is how I found out the details. There have also been tree planting days and members of Rangers and Thames 21 around regularly to discuss details with. Many of us park users have had regular conversations.

Carmel Cahill ● 2448d

Sarcasm noted Mike, but what do you do to stop this kind of 'progress'. The only thing is to get loads of people to use the course. Sad,but Golf has been in decline for many years, Hounslow Heath has also been closed down I don't know what has happened to then land at Horsenden Hill yet.Some 18 hole courses, Blackpool for one,is going 9 hole.People no longer have  the 4 or 5 hours to play 18.

Keith Iddon ● 2448d

Thanks, Keith.

Mike Paterson ● 2448d

Shame. I use Perivale regularly but not for a few months,I feel a new housing estate coming on in a couple of years.

Keith Iddon ● 2448d