Charisma2 replied on 07/11/2013 11:10
Posted on 07/11/2013 11:10
Very good ideas Andy. The club could do with you on the board, shake them up a bit with inspiration.
I was recently at the Brighton site and picked up a bio diversity statement leaflet produced by the club, it was impressive with pictures of wild flowers and animals found on the site, then you realized more effort had being put into the leaflet than having interesting areas of wild flowers etc... all the grass is cut too short and the hedges kept low. I failed to see any attempts at being 'green'. They could simply leave areas of taller grass with a plaque saying what it's about, nature would do the rest.
I know a club still has to make a profit and indeed the CC has an incredibly strong balance sheet and makes huge capital expenditure each year - on yet more hard standing and tarmac! But when faced with a blank site, like the Bridlington and Barnard Castle new sites, it would have been a golden opportunity to make them really special. Yes they are clean and safe and hot where they need to be but in terms of design like you have mentioned they have zero input.
So what is the philosophy of the club? To go on making as much profit as possible whilst ploughing back enough to maintain the standards? I didn't join to save money on site fees. I joined for exclusivity, for gorgeous surroundings, not to be crammed in next to loads of others with as little space as possible, I can get that without being in a club. I understand the York site is a numbers game sited in the centre, land is short so cram them in, that's fine, you go there for the purpose of location. But out in the country, 100 pitches close to each other with maybe 80% occupancy or 75 pitches in luxury that are fully booked ? I don't know.
I do know that the local working man's club once they cover their overheads any excess is dribbled down into a lower price of a pint, that works fine. Wouldn't work down at the golf club though.
Really do like your ideas though, perhaps include fruit trees! how nice would that be helping yourself to an apple from your window?
Charisma2
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