Members of the golf club and neighbouring residents are set to oppose the plans for a number of reasons, including flood risk and loss of a recreational facility
Ivan Morris Poxton Local Democracy Reporter
12:02, 22 Jan 2026
Humberston Country Club golf course aerial view – 249 homes are suggested to replace the course, bracketed in red.(Image: Google Maps)
Plans for 249 homes to replace a North East Lincolnshire golf course look set to face strong opposition. A pre-application consultation is out for the potential development at Humberston Country Club’s golf course off Humberston Avenue.
If the development progresses, the rest of the club’s facilities, run by Bannatyne, would remain operational. But the nine-hole golf course, unique in the area, would go.
Vistry East Yorkshire are behind the plans. These include 89 affordable homes, a new access road to Humberston Avenue, and public open space on part of the golf course’s fairways.
Humberston Village Council discussed the pre-application consultation on Tuesday, January 20, and agreed to make a representation feeding back their unfavourable view. More than 25 members of the public attended.
“We never get an audience like this, it’s fabulous,” stated Vice Chair Cllr Elizabeth Shawhulme, at the meeting’s start. A range of reasons for opposition were put forward, including flood risk, loss of a valued recreational facility, road safety and congestion, and biodiversity loss.
The developer was not in attendance, but a Vistry spokesperson said: “As we develop our proposals for this site we welcome views from community stakeholders, which is the purpose of a public consultation.”
A Coniston Crescent resident raised flooding as a main concern. A drainage dyke ran down the back of their house and it floods. “Every year, it has to have people come down and dredge it.”
“No amount of swales or flood provision is going to make a difference,” he said on the potential standing water. The course itself has been out of action since mid-December due to being waterlogged.
“The next thing, biodiversity on that site is second to none,” He said. He stated wildlife that featured included bats, varied bird life and badgers.
The resident said he had more than 30 points on why there was “no reason that we can see it as a good idea for the area”. His speech drew applause.
Ray Rex, secretary of Humberston Country Club’s golf section, stated he had been in contact with England Golf since before Christmas, who had indicated they will require a needs assessment to justify the recreational facility’s potential loss. “One of the points I made to England Golf is that it’s accessible. It’s the only nine-hole golf course in the area.”
Asked about the availability of other North East Lincolnshire golf courses nearby to take on new members, Mr Rex claimed: “No, they’re all full.”
Jill Lampton, member of the club’s golf section, noted a recently-issued North East Lincolnshire Council survey, called Leisure Place Partnerships, “to help shape the future of being active in North East Lincolnshire”.
“Well, this is going to stop people moving more, isn’t it, especially those of us of a certain age.”
A number of Humberston Country Club members, opposed to the suggested 249 homes on the golf course, who attended the village council meeting on a Tuesday night in January(Image: LDR)
‘Only facility of its kind’
“It’s been a facility that’s been available to us for more than 30 years, many of us have played there for that length of time,” said Mr Rex to Grimsby Live. “It’s the only facility of its kind in the area,” he said, with members mentioning the loss of a par three nine-hole course off Humberston Avenue to housing around a decade ago.
“The fact is that, without that club, we would very unlikely have anywhere else that we could readily go.” Susan Hansen, a member for 29 years, stressed users of the course number far more than its regular members.
“Even more people come to pay and play, so there’s many more people than 80,” she said. “In the evenings in the Summer, when a lot of people come from work, you sometimes can hardly get on the course.”
Mel Read recalled it has hosted coaching sessions for kids to play golf. “For a junior to play golf there, it’s ideal, because it’s not so long.”
The club looks to have competitions, under world handicap system rules, 52 weeks of the year. It is also unique locally for having mixed-gender competitions.
A concerned resident, Jill, said a lot of paying players and members brought their children to play on Sundays, and emphasised the social aspect, particularly for older people. “It’s a big social thing.
“There’s a lot of these people that play on a Sunday, that’s the only social bit that they get. They’re isolated the rest of the time. The ladies in the golf section, we will be isolated, because we won’t be able to play anybody else.”
Another wider aerial view of the Humberston Country Club golf course; a par three golf course used to exist around 15 years ago where housing is in the bottom left of the image(Image: Google Maps)
Members spoken to also raised the site’s biodiversity, flood risk concerns and claims of overdevelopment of the Humberston Avenue area. “Humberston Avenue was the premier site in the area,” said Mel. “That was the address everybody wanted. Now, people want to get out of Humberston Avenue, because they’re just devaluing it left, right and centre.”
Paul Callanan reiterated his view there are other possible sites for housing. “North of South Sea Lane, there’s an allocation for 31 homes for an area half as big again,” he said referring to the council’s current Local Plan.
Speaking outside the meeting, the Coniston Crescent resident said Buttermere Crescent was “completely under water” in 2007 flooding, and noted the level of development along Humberston Avenue since. He added that, going door-to-door, he had collected 24 Coniston Crescent households’ signatures in one morning for an objection petition.