GOLFERS are furious at a leisure provider’s plans to kick their club out of its centre after 43 years.

Everyone Active will not allow the Middlesbrough Municipal Golf Club to operate at its Ladgate Lane course from April 1.

Instead, it will be setting up its own club to run at the Middlesbrough Municipal Golf Centre.

However, members of the Middlesbrough Municipal Golf Club believe that it’s a disgrace that their club is being prevented from operating at the course and they voted overwhelmingly (86 per cent) at the recent AGM in favour of remaining at the site.

Geoff Moore, 73, who serves on the golf club’s committee, said: “The members got very angry [at the AGM] to say the least, people were saying, ‘what the hell right do they have to take our club off us when we have had it for all this time?’.

He went on to add: “What we have done for 43 years and the help we have given them [Everyone Active] when they came in, they are basically pulling the rug from beneath our feet and saying, we are disbanding it.

“It’s a complete and utter disgrace. I have been there for all this time and I haven’t slept for weeks and weeks.”

Geoff has been playing golf at the centre since it opened in 1977, a year later the club was set up and he joined its committee in 1980 – apart from a couple of years when he took a step back, he has served on the committee ever since.

He went on to add: “It’s just disgraceful, it really is and the club is absolutely up in arms.

“People who have left the club and went on to other clubs for other reasons, they never ever forget where the grassroots were.

“To take that away from us the members and the people that have worked their heart and soul out for all these years and disband us from April 1, it’s nothing short of shocking.”

Alan Chillmaid, 64, who also serves on the committee and has been playing at the centre since he was a teenager, is concerned that Everyone Active only holds the contract for the site until 2031.

He said: “The biggest reason that we don’t want it to happen the way Everyone Active want it to happen is because our club is going out of existence.

“If we could sit around a table with them and come to some agreement where our club continues, that would be fine.

“As a sub-contractor, their contract is only until 2031 and if there is a reason that doesn’t get renewed the club they have set up now just disappears.”

Geoff is also worried about the uncertainty over the end of the contract and said that if the club were allowed to remain then it would continue to function as it always has even if the leisure provider changes.

Currently, Everyone Active receives the money from the season tickets and those who pay as they play, while the membership fee, which is a £40 annual fee for new members and £30 after that, goes to the Middlesbrough Municipal Golf Club.

The club uses this to pay fees to England Golf, Yorkshire Golf, and Teesside Union Fees, as well as club admin, IT equipment, honours boards and trophy presentations.

There are around 600 season ticket holders at the centre and around 200 of those are members of the golf club.

Everyone Active, which runs a number of leisure sites including the Neptune Centre and the Rainbow Leisure Centre, has said that it will be setting up another committee that members of the club can join.

However, Geoff and Alan, who have both served as club captains and presidents, said that this does not align with the club’s current committee as it scraps some key positions including the president and the treasurer.

Alan also raised the impact that the club has had on golfers over the years.

He said: “When Ray Mallon was mayor, he said that the golf centre was the jewel for the town.

“The golf centre was set up, I always remember the quote on the telly, so the everyday man on the street can enjoy the benefits and the competitions of a private golf club without having to pay private golf club prices and we have worked along those lines.

“We have had a lot of members join who don’t know one end of the club from the other but have gone on to be really good golfers.

“You could ask any club in this area and a fair percentage started their golf at the Municipal Golf Club.

“We don’t have the resources of a private golf club but we more than hold our own.”

In response, Everyone Active has said that it is believes that the change will be good for golf in the area.

The leisure provider’s contract manager, Paul Ayre, added: “We have been working with Middlesbrough Council and England Golf to create a strategy to ensure Middlesbrough Municipal Golf Centre continues to thrive.

“With this in mind, we began a consultation process with the committee of Middlesbrough Municipal Golf Club in August 2021, in order to discuss how the club would fit into any future strategy and to preserve its heritage. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were unable to reach an agreement.

“As a consequence, the club will no longer be based at the site from April 1 and can explore other options for its future. From that point onwards, one structure will be in place which will see Everyone Active continue to manage the site and create a new club.

“We pride ourselves on working closely with local clubs across the country to help develop the future of sport. We’re sad that in this case, we weren’t able to find a resolution for the future of the Middlesbrough Municipal Golf Club that suited both of our ambitions.

“The club’s committee members are welcome and encouraged to apply for voluntary roles in the new club structure.

“We are confident that Middlesbrough Municipal Golf Centre will flourish going forward and that this change will be for the good of golf in the local area.

“Customers will see no change to the way the facility operates and will still be able to pay as they play or join the new club as a member. From April 1, the top price of a season ticket will be £539, which is by far the cheapest in the local area.”