{"id":1075697,"date":"2026-07-08T06:37:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T06:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1075697\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T06:37:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T06:37:20","slug":"nottingham-boxing-legend-joins-campaign-to-save-beautiful-golf-club-under-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1075697\/","title":{"rendered":"Nottingham boxing legend joins campaign to save ‘beautiful’ golf club \u2018under attack\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The outcry to protect the ‘jewel in the crown’ facility has been building momentum\"Former<\/p>\n

Former boxing world champion, Carl Froch(Image: Joseph Raynor\/ Nottingham Post)<\/p>\n

A former world champion boxer has called on a council to \u201cthink of the people\u201d ahead of potential plans to build hundreds of homes on a much-loved golf course<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nottingham boxing legend Carl Froch, who held the WBC super-middleweight title twice, has publicly joined the fight to protect Mapperley<\/a> Golf Club from being used to hit council housing targets.<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s future has been left threatened, with the site back under Gedling<\/a> Borough Council\u2019s spotlight to potentially be used for up to 750 homes.<\/p>\n

The authority is currently consulting on its draft local development plan, which has identified key areas and bits of green space across the borough that could be used to allocate an extra 6,045 homes<\/a> by 2043 to ensure housing targets are met.<\/p>\n

Parts of Gedling\u2019s swathes of countryside have been put forward, along with the edges of villages such as Calverton and Ravenshead, but one spot contained in Nottingham\u2019s urban sprawl is the 127-year-old, 18-hole golf club.<\/p>\n

The outcry to protect the \u201cjewel in the crown\u201d golf club has been building momentum in recent months, with the club\u2019s chairman, Paul Cookson, telling the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) in May he intended to \u201cfight the good fight\u201d in getting the council to remove the site from housing plans.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A general view of Mapperley Golf Course(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)<\/p>\n

Mr Froch has taken to Facebook in June and July to help raise awareness in the club\u2019s campaign, posting on July 4 that he had played a round of golf at the course the day before and linking the website where residents can learn how to submit their objections in the ongoing consultation.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the LDRS on Tuesday (July 7), Mr Froch said: \u201cThere\u2019s too many houses in one area, there\u2019s an overkill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of planning I\u2019ve had refused for a potential single dwelling out of the way, now all of a sudden [the council] can [potentially] demolish the whole golf course, and fit their agenda and their plans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former boxer says he \u201curges\u201d people to visit the site, noting the wildlife and trees at the spot, saying: \u201cYou walk out the urban jungle and straight away into the countryside \u2013 it\u2019s beautiful, phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

While also acknowledging the council\u2019s recent decision to close the Richard Herrod Centre in Carlton<\/a> to make way for a new leisure centre \u2013 effectively displacing the long-standing Gedling Indoor Bowls Club \u2013 Mr Froch asked: \u201cWhy are the leisure and recreational facilities under attack? Where people go and communicate and create a community and enjoy themselves and breathe the fresh outdoors.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cHealth benefits from sports \u2013 it\u2019s so positive and encourages regular exercise. Golf improves walking, balance, and cardiovascular fitness. Indoor bowls helps with mobility, coordination, flexibility, especially for older adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir mental wellbeing, help reduce stress, improve mental health, give people a routine, a purpose, especially older people. Trying to get rid of all of this and build some more houses?\u2026 [Older people] might not have the facilities and capabilities of going to another golf club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Froch told the LDRS he wants the council to \u201cthink of the people\u201d when concluding its consultation on its draft local development plan.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThink of the people, what do the people want? The people you\u2019re supposed to serve, the people that pay their council tax, pay their taxes and have lived there for many years, generations a lot of them \u2013 think about them and what they\u2019re going to do when they lose this golf course.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce it\u2019s gone, it will never return, so have a think about that, the impact you\u2019re having on the environment and the people, especially the elderly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in June, Gedling Borough Conservative councillor, Sam Smith, told the LDRS the potential \u201cerosion\u201d of the golf course was \u201cthe saddest\u201d part of the authority\u2019s proposed housing allocations.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt\u2019s the only golf course this side of Calverton. It\u2019s the jewel in Gedling\u2019s crown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt brings in spending to Gedling borough. Others stop off for lunch, have breakfast, it\u2019s a great venue for community events, birthdays. To build on that is a disgrace, and it will absolutely increase flooding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe council talk about wellbeing and lifestyle choices. They have already closed Gedling Indoor Bowls Club\u2019s site, now it\u2019s the golf club \u2013 what it does for senior residents\u2019 and mental health and wellbeing is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Mapperley Golf Club club house(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)<\/p>\n

In May, the \u2018thriving\u2019 club\u2019s membership stood at nearly 500 members, where around 50 of them joined within the last year. Non-member footfall also increased by around 20 per cent in 2025 on the previous year.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time the golf course has been threatened with development. The council allocated the area for up to 1,900 homes until 2011, but this fell through.<\/p>\n

A 4,000-person strong campaign opposing the development followed and planning officials decided it would be too expensive to build there in the end.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the land being back under the spotlight, Mr Froch said: \u201cThis should not be happening \u2013 nobody will ever convince me that they need to destroy a golf club on Mapperley, which is totally full of hills and banks\u2026 to build out on that place, that\u2019s going to be a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

A council spokesperson previously said in a statement: \u201c[The council] will allow a period of public consultation in respect of all the policies and allocations proposed, including Mapperley Golf Course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Plan proposes a spatial strategy based on a settlement hierarchy with the proposed site allocations being in accordance with this. As much housing as is feasible is proposed to be located within and adjoining the main built up area of Nottingham.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s six-week consultation on its housing allocation plans closes on August 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The outcry to protect the ‘jewel in the crown’ facility has been building momentum Former boxing world champion,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1075698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,79621,230012,230013,224685,1403,79,16,15],"class_list":["post-1075697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-carl-froch","tag-gedling","tag-gedling-borough-council","tag-mapperley","tag-nottinghamshire","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116882982296331972","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1075697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1075698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1075697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1075697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1075697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}