Evington Golf Club in Dire Straits-Part I
Evington Golf club is a landmark in the area that serves as green wedge between Evington and Oadby and lies coterminous with Shady Lane Arboretum. It provides a pleasant open space for walkers (with or without dogs) and golfers. Unfortunately, it has been struggling financially in recent times and proposed to sell land off Gartree Road and Stoughton Drive to Morrison Community Care, arguing that giving up one per cent of their land would help secure the future of the other 99%.
The proposal was to build a 72-bed care home to support the golf club through financial difficulties, but councillors chose to reject the application at a Leicester City Council planning committee meeting on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, because the site is on protected green wedge land between Evington and Oadby. The proposal was supported by the club and ward councillor Jenny Joannou (Conservative), a member of the council’s adult social care panel, who argued the need for care provision outweighed any potential harm to the green wedge land.
Developers estimate the site would have created up to 100 full-time jobs and would have added £3m to the local economy each year. They also claimed it would help prevent bed blocking in NHS hospitals and save adult social care services £170,000 a year.
Apparently, Councillors who were left to make the final decision said they were “confused”, in the weighing up of the need for care against the need to protect the green wedge.
Green councillor Patrick Kitterick (Castle ward) told members that granting planning permission could set a negative precedent for further development of the site over time if the club continued to face financial troubles.
He also argued that although there is a need for care homes in the city, if it were the only available site in the whole city, he would have a different opinion about it but argued there are other sites and he feared that sustained financial pressures might lead to gradual erosion of the green wedge as the club sold off the land piece by piece.
Ultimately, councillors voted in line with officer recommendations and the application was refused.
On a prima facie case this seems laudable as the site sits within a designated Green Wedge, and the scheme “does not meet exception criteria” under local planning policy.
The “Very special circumstances” bar is high, developers must show exceptional justification for a scheme to be approved.
In this case, the care home benefit in providing NHS relief was not enough. This may well be a relief to many who prize our countryside and the green spaces that are so important to physical and mental wellbeing. However, what happens if the golf club goes into administration and the land lies abandoned. The next article will explore this and discuss the likely scenarios.
Source:
1-https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/warning-issued-evington-golf-clubs-10886779
2-https://www.insidermedia.com/news/midlands/refusal-looms-for-care-home-at-leicestershire-golf-club
