Protect Rickmansworth's Green Belt

This is an appeal to the Rickmansworth, Harefield, and Northwood communities and beyond for support to help prevent the development of residential housing at Batchworth Park Golf Club.

There’s a serious threat to the beautiful green open space at Batchworth Park. Currently owned and managed as a golf club, the stunning landscape is potentially going to disappear under the development of more than 600 houses.

The landowners wish to sell the property for development and if it were allowed to go ahead the local community would not only lose an irreplaceable rural asset but would be forced to endure years of unbearable construction activity with heavy construction traffic disruption to already congested local roads, noise, dust, and all that associated nuisance.

To realise their dreams of obliteration of a magnificent part of the Hertfordshire Green Belt they must first get the land accepted into the Three Rivers local plan and to do that they have to evict their tenants – the members of Batchworth Park Golf Club. Or at least they must prove that they can evict us whenever they want.

We, the members of Batchworth Park Golf Club, hold a lease over the property which extends for the next 73 years but the landowners, Batchworth Park Property Ltd, part of the Australian-owned Crown Golf empire, are claiming that we don’t have the rights over our lease that we are convinced we certainly do. We are locked in a serious, protracted, and complicated legal fight to prove our rights over the lease – this bitter battle is the first line of defence against the eventual loss of this precious open space in your neighbourhood.

We need help with the legal fees and potential court costs which keep mounting and mounting - the members have already spent nearly £250,000 out of their own pockets and we continue to dig deep. We know we can win as long as we have the resources to keep going.

You don’t have to love golf to want to help preserve this wonderful open space which happens to currently be a golf course – we think clubs are better than spades, and we’d hate to see our fairways replaced with driveways. We're also acutely aware that our golf course is a haven for wildlife and we are the guardians of a diverse range of tree species. The view across this landscape, especially at sunset is one of the best in Hertfordshire. The point is, it’s not the right place around here to squeeze in as many houses as possible.

So, if you could possibly help us with a donation towards our cause we would be really really grateful. We realise that this is a tough time to be out with a begging bowl but absolutely any amount that you can spare would be wonderful and would show us that we have the support of friends and neighbours in the local community – and perhaps further afield. Thank you.