A plan to create a new park at a former golf course in Newcastle-under-Lyme has been unveiled by council leaders.

The newly named Lyme Park would stretch across the former Keele Municipal Golf Course and feature woodland, mature trees and open green spaces. 

The former golf club site has already been allocated for housing, a school, and a medical facility in Newcastle borough council's draft local plan.

But 66% of the original golf course would be retained as a new park under the plans, which are due to go before the council's Cabinet next week.

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council leader, Simon Tagg, said: "Creating a countryside park at Keele is an exciting prospect. 

"Quality public open space is recognised as a valuable amenity for people's health and well-being, especially since the Covid pandemic, which aligns with the council's priority to create healthy, active and safe communities.

 "Although the site may not meet the threshold for formal designation as a country park, it is intended to apply the principles wherever possible to create a community asset which is accessible for residents and visitors, and free to use, both now and in the future."

A map of the plans for the land at the former Keele Municipal Golf Course. (NUL Borough Council)

It's envisaged the project would contribute to the council's tree planting strategy by protecting a significant part of the popular open space from development and safeguarding biodiversity. 

The golf course, on Keele Road, closed in 2012 and has since been left to grow wild but the question of what to do with the site next has been highly controversial for years. 

Plans were previously put forward in 2018 to build 1,200 homes on Green Belt land including the former golf course, and a joint local plan between Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle Borough councils which included housing development on the land was scrapped in 2020.

The latest plans are part of Newcastle-under-Lyme's latest final draft local plan.

Cllr Tagg added: "It's envisaged that initial set up costs could be relatively low as the land already contains clearings, paths, copses, hedges and grassland areas.

 "Over the past four years, we have planted 27,000 trees at selected places across Newcastle-under-Lyme, creating valuable carbon capture green spaces and saving 60 sites from development. 

"A countryside park on part of this very large site – which closed as a golf course more than a decade ago – would enable the council to protect a significant part of it. Ultimately, it would also allow us to control any possible future development by limiting the number of houses built there."

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