Renewed hope for Australia-themed adventure golf course 

Following refusal last year, the family that owns Adlington Golf Centre in Cheshire has reapplied for permission to repurpose part of its land into an adventure golf course. 

Cheshire East Council blocked the original proposals, claiming that structures included within the 11-acre scheme – including a shack structure to be used as the attraction’s reception – would impact the openness of the Green Belt. 

Other features of the scheme include Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Ayres Rock, and King George Falls-themed holes, as well as a small lake. 

Now, the Moss family has lodged refreshed plans for the attraction, designed by Swedish adventure golf specialist City Golf Europe, arguing that the project amounts to a suitable use of the land. 

While the make-up of the course remains largely unchanged from the original application, the soft landscape proposals in and around the facility have been redesigned in order to create “a discrete feature that sits within a native species woodland setting”, according to landscape architect Barnes Walker. 

Players will attempt to get the ball in a kangaroo’s pouch on one hole

“As a result, the development will take on the appearance of a block of woodland that is consistent with the character of the surrounding rural landscape, thus screening the Australia-themed features therein,” Barnes Walker’s visual impact assessment states. 

The project aims to bring back into use a parcel of land cut off from the rest of Adlington Golf Centre following the construction of the Poynton Relief Road. 

Cheshire East bought a chunk of Adlington Golf Centre’s land through a compulsory purchase order as part of its plans for the £53m road project, leaving the facility’s nine-hole graduate course unviable due to its reduction in size. 

As a result, the golf club’s owner applied to create the Australia-themed adventure golf course as a way of securing a long-term, viable use for the remaining land, which is deemed too small to be used as a modified standalone golf course. 

A replacement nine-hole graduate course within the grounds of the Adlington Golf Centre known as the Heritage Course is now open to the public. 

Construction of the relief road is due to complete in 2022.