The council has cleared the way to lease the closed Brackenwood Golf Course to Link Golf, with Brackenwood Park kept open. The tenant is not obliged to reopen all 18 holes.
Wirral Council has cleared the way to lease the closed Brackenwood Golf Course in Bebington to Link Golf UK, and has promised that Brackenwood Park will stay open to the public for the whole lease. The chief executive signed the decision today, Tuesday 10 November.
The course shut after councillors approved its permanent closure in June 2022. Today’s decision is the furthest any plan to bring golf back has got since then.
There is one important change from the deal councillors first saw. The tenant will get a rent-free period, but it is not obliged to bring the course back into use. The decision notice says the new terms make it clear that the tenant “is not obliged but enabled to carry out such works by virtue of the rent free period”.
What the council decided
The officer decision notice, dated 10 November 2026, approves three things:
- accepting a letter of consent from Unilever, which holds a 1933 covenant over most of the land
- the heads of terms for leasing the former course to Link Golf UK Limited, or a company it nominates
- the intention to lease the land, subject to a fresh public notice running for two consecutive weeks
The rent is not public. It sits in an appendix the council has kept confidential because it concerns a company’s business affairs.
The 1933 covenant
Most of the course was swapped between Lever Brothers and the old Bebington Urban District Council under a deed dated 22 September 1933. Unilever is Lever Brothers’ successor, and the council stands in for Bebington.
One of four covenants in that deed obliges the council to keep the land “for the purpose of a public park and pleasure grounds” forever. Unilever has agreed to give written consent for the lease. The covenant itself does not go away. The notice says it will still matter for “any future different use and user of the land”.
Why the park promise matters
The terms councillors saw in December 2025 did not guarantee public access to the part of the site that could be counted as Brackenwood Park. The approved terms now say that area “will remain open to public access throughout the lease term”.
The site is also covered by byelaws from 9 October 1985 protecting open access and “peaceful public enjoyment”. The notice says enforcing those byelaws on a privately run golf course would be “counter intuitive and very unlikely to succeed”. They could still be enforced on any part of Brackenwood Park the council keeps.
Why there has to be another public notice
The council advertised its plan to dispose of the open space earlier this year, and nobody objected. Officers then found that much of the course had been acquired under the Public Health Act 1875. That needs its own notice, so the process has to be repeated with the right legal wording.
Once that notice has run, the chief executive will look at any representations before approving the final terms.
What the council said publicly
Wirral View, the council’s news site, carried the decision today. Council leader Cllr Paula Basnett said:
“We want to see golf thriving at Brackenwood again, with a full 18-hole course brought back into use, while ensuring people continue to have access to the park.”
The release says the rent-free period “reflect[s] the cost of the works identified to reinstate and open an 18-hole golf course”. It does not mention that the tenant is under no obligation to do that work. That detail is only in the decision notice.
Any reshaping of the course will need planning permission, which is the tenant’s job to secure.
How Brackenwood got here
The December 2025 committee report sets out a long road:
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 16 June 2022 | Committee approves permanent closure of Brackenwood and Hoylake municipal courses |
| 27 July 2023 | Heads of terms agreed for a transfer to Brackenwood Community Golf Limited, including four full-size pitches |
| 17 July 2024 | That transfer cannot proceed; councillors ask Link Golf UK and Brackenwood Golf Club for a business plan |
| 17 December 2025 | Policy and Resources Committee authorises a lease to a community interest company Link Golf would set up, or another suitable occupier |
| 10 November 2026 | Chief executive approves revised terms and a new public notice |
Along the way the plan stopped being a community asset transfer and became a commercial letting. Plans for playing pitches were dropped, because neither the club nor Link Golf could pay for the reshaping they would need. The report says Brackenwood Golf Club wrote a letter endorsing the deal with Link Golf.
In the same report, Link Golf said it offers “free coaching, equipment and golf for all children aged 16 and under” at its sites.
Why the council closed it
The report says Brackenwood closed because few people used it and it needed expensive drainage work. Between 2015 and 2020 the council’s golf service ran at a subsidy of around £420,000 a year.
Since Brackenwood and Hoylake closed, the report says the council has kept about 97% of rounds at its two remaining courses, Arrowe Park and the Warren, with about 73,000 rounds a year. It projected golf income of about £920,000 for 2025/26, against £723,000 across all four courses in 2021/22.
That success is also the council’s worry. The report estimates a revived Brackenwood could take around 30% of trade from the council’s own courses, worth about £276,000. Officers said a letting would at least end the council’s cost of looking after the land, “particularly with regard to fly tipping”.
What it means for you
- Brackenwood Park stays open. The approved terms keep it open to the public for as long as the lease runs.
- You can have your say. The council will publish a notice for two consecutive weeks about using the land for a different purpose and leasing the open space. Representations made in response will be considered before the terms are finalised. We will add the dates when the notice appears.
- Golf is not guaranteed. The tenant can reopen the course, and the rent-free period is meant to help, but it is not required to.
- The land stays green belt. The December report warned that selling it outright risked it being “land banked for future development”. A lease keeps the council as owner.
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