News / SIC cuts put golf club in the rough
SHETLAND Golf Club has said it could be forced to drive up membership fees after the local council delayed renewing their annual contribution towards running the Dales Voe course.
On Wednesday Shetland Islands Council’s social services committee chairman Cecil Smith gave his casting vote to deny the golf club the annual sum of £30,000 the council would have paid as part of a service level agreement.
Instead he backed a motion from Shetland Central member Betty Fullerton to hold back the payment until the end of this financial year to see if it can survive the SIC’s annual budget setting process.
This sinks a six month black hole in the golf club’s accounts, whose financial year starts in October, half a year before the council’s.
Club captain Eric Burgess reacted on Thursday from London, where he is away on business, saying: “This is not good news. It’s going to be a struggle and we are going to have to increase the cost of membership quite drastically.”
Since 2005 the council has paid one third of the golf club’s running cost. This year the club wanted £42,000 a year towards the annual bill of £127,700 for maintaining the 18 hole course over the next four years.
Officers had proposed reducing the amount to £30,000 to reflect the cuts being made throughout the authority, which is looking to slash its overall budget by up to £18 million next year on top of huge savings already being made in the current financial year.
Shetland South member Allison Duncan led a call for the golf club to be refused any subsidy.
In March he failed to even find a seconder when he wanted to refuse a £10,000 annual grant to Whalsay Golf Club. On Wednesday the mood had changed, and he lost by a single vote.
Then Mrs Fullerton chimed in with a suggestion the golfing agreement be withheld until April, to make sure that every voluntary group in Shetland was treated equally.
She won the day when Mr Smith used his casting vote to decide the 4:4 split on the issue.
Under the council’s new political structure, this decision can not be reviewed by the full council, so the golf club will have to find the cash from elsewhere to keep them going at least from October until April.
Mrs Fullerton said: “There are a huge amount of voluntary organisations in Shetland and as a council we have to be sure that as our resources shrink we are fair to them all.”
The golf club has just increased its annual membership fee for adults by five per cent to £210, with a reduced rate for seniors, juniors and residents of the north and outer isles.
Mr Burgess said the committee would have to meet shortly to review their charges. “We will have to consult our members and get everyone involved to see what the best way forward is, but it’s going to be difficult.
“Some people think this is a luxury, but I think this is an important part of Shetland life. It’s a wonderful course and a beautiful spot and it’s great exercise. It would be detrimental for Lerwick if the course was to fall by the wayside and if the current standard wasn’t maintained.”
The club has 254 male and 49 female adult members, with a mixed gender junior contingent that has grown from 26 to 80 over the last six years.
This year former golfing champion Paul Lawrie opened a £5,000 facility for coaching youngsters at the course, and the club was hoping to erect an indoor driving range with a grant from sportscotland, which is now in doubt.
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