Cabinet has dropped the idea of up to 500 homes and a swimming pool on Panshanger Golf Course after 4,402 people answered its survey and residents split 45% to 45%. No WGC pool site this council term.

Panshanger Golf Course will stay a golf course. Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council’s Cabinet agreed on Tuesday 11 August not to put the council-owned course on Old Herns Lane forward as a site for up to 500 homes and a new leisure centre, and not to include it in the version of the new Local Plan that goes out for its final consultation. The same decision shelves the search for anywhere else to build a swimming pool and sports hall in Welwyn Garden City for the rest of this council’s term.

The wording is in the meeting’s published record. Cabinet resolved to “not include Panshanger Golf Course as a site for redevelopment for Reg 19 and to not progress with the exploration for sites for a Leisure Centre within Welwyn Garden City within this Council’s tenure”. Regulation 19 is the last public stage of a Local Plan before it goes to a government inspector; the council said on 27 July that the full plan is due before councillors in September.

What was proposed, and why

The idea surfaced at a special Cabinet meeting in July. The council’s report of 11 August sets out the logic. Its draft Built Facilities Assessment and Strategy for 2025 to 2036 says the north of the borough needs a new swimming pool and sports hall “in or close to Welwyn Garden City”, which has no public pool. Officers looking for council-owned land found that Panshanger, an 18-hole pay-and-play course run for the council by Better (GLL), “can both physically provide the space for a new leisure centre and through the provision of up to 500 family homes, the funding to pay for the new leisure centre”.

The report is blunt about the trade-off: “It is not possible to have the golf club, new leisure centre and the new homes to fund it … Equally it is not possible to fund the new leisure centre without the new homes.” It also cites expert advice given to the July meeting that there are 55 eighteen-hole courses within 15 miles, four of them run by local authorities, and that public access at other clubs including Mill Green has increased.

Between 10 and 31 July the council ran an online survey, four drop-in sessions (at Panshanger, Haldens, Campus West and the Howard Centre), letters to the 600 nearest homes and a further 5,000 delivered by volunteers, plus meetings with the golf club, its staff, The View restaurant on the site, Better, Together for Welwyn Garden and the Welwyn Garden BID.

What 4,402 people said

The response was, in the report’s own word, significant: 4,402 people completed the online survey, plus paper copies and emails, and a separate change.org petition to protect the golf club gathered more than 4,300 signatures. The resident-only results (4,102 of the respondents said they live in the borough) show two things pulling against each other:

  • Leisure matters. 56% rated improved leisure facilities for WGC as “very important” (5 out of 5), and only 11% “not important at all”. Asked which new facility mattered most, 64% picked a swimming pool, far ahead of a sports hall (22%), cafe and social space (22%) or a gym (19%). Half (49%) said their household would be “very likely” to use new facilities.
  • The site divided people down the middle. On the direct question, “Do you support exploring a new leisure facility at Panshanger Golf Course?”, 40% were strongly opposed and 36% strongly in support, with the middle scores thin: 5%, 10% and 9%. The council’s summary puts opposed (1 and 2) at 45% and support (4 and 5) at 45% among residents. Across all respondents, including those who work in, study in or visit the borough, it was 46% opposed to 43% in support.

Two other answers explain the split. Asked how often they use the golf course, 45% of residents said never or almost never, while 20% said once a week or more. And when asked what any development must consider, 81% chose “keeping green space and trees” and 60% “garden city principles”, well ahead of traffic (34%) or a mix of housing (19%). Only 17% picked “building social housing” as a priority.

The report’s conclusion: “whilst there is a strong desire for a swimming pool, and other leisure amenities, and a strong intention to utilise such a facility, the opportunity to redevelop Panshanger Golf Club to accommodate this was one that evenly divided the respondents.” Officers recommended dropping the site, and Cabinet agreed.

The council’s Executive Member for Community and Leisure, Councillor Max Holloway, said in the council’s own announcement ahead of the meeting: “People in Welwyn Garden City want new leisure facilities and a swimming pool. However, there was no clear support for the Panshanger Golf Club site, alongside some concern about new homes.” Deputy Leader Councillor Sandreni Bonfante added: “We note and accept the recommendation that this proposal should not be progressed.”

What it means for you

If you play at Panshanger: nothing changes. The course, the nine-hole pitch and putt, the footgolf and The View carry on under Better, and the site will not appear as a housing allocation in the Local Plan when it is published for its Regulation 19 consultation.

If you wanted a pool in Welwyn Garden City: this is the harder half of the decision. The report’s financial section says there is “currently no option for funding a new facility”, which is “why the recommendation of this report is to no longer progress assessment for options for a new facility within the lifetime of this council”. The evidence base will still say WGC needs one; the plan will just not name a site for it. Hatfield is different: the current Local Plan already allocates the swim centre car park for a new pool and sports hall, and the emerging Hatfield masterplan is reviewing whether that is the right spot. There is no identified funding for that either.

If you live nearby: the 600 households that were written to directly can stand down. Panshanger stays golf. Anyone who wants to check other proposed sites when the plan is published can follow our Welwyn Hatfield planning news page.

If you responded to the survey: the council says it will engage directly with the golf club’s staff and, through its chair, its members. The full survey results, including the 6,824 pieces of written feedback the council counted, are attached to the Cabinet papers as two PDFs, one for residents and one for all respondents.

We will report on the Regulation 19 Local Plan and its list of housing sites when Cabinet and Full Council consider it in September.