HAYLEY GASTMEIER
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Featherston golf course has been sold to the South Wairarapa District Council [SWDC] which is understood to be planning to use the 32-hectare block for wastewater irrigation.
Multiple offers were made on the Viles Rd property, for which tenders closed on Thursday.
The decision to award the land to the council was made unanimously by the Featherston Golf Club committee.
All parties remained tight-lipped on how much the course sold for, but it had a rateable value of $1,020,000.
Councillors mulled over the pros and cons of buying the golf course at its recent week’s council meeting.
The discussion took place behind closed doors, despite a challenge from Featherston councillor Ross Vickery.
The minutes of the publicly excluded report will be considered at the next full SWDC meeting on October 24, when it is anticipated all council tender information will be released, a council statement advises.
SWDC’s statement said the purchased land was immediately adjacent to the existing council-owned land proposed for the Featherston wastewater distribution.
But the golf course has fewer neighbours than the sites on Murphy’s Line and Longwood East Rd, where many residents oppose the plan to discharge effluent.
Featherston Golf Club captain Charlie Fairbrother said members were happy with the outcome.
“We picked what was the best for us.
“There were a number of tenders and some were more interesting than others and one included someone who wanted to keep it as a golf course.”
He said the club would now “take the money and move on”.
It would likely be merging with the Martinborough Golf Club.
The property was marketed by Property Brokers’ sales consultants Erin Nesdale, Benn Milne and Stephen Penn.
Milne said the property received overseas interest.
“We’ve worked on this for four weeks achieving the result we set out for, with multiple offers, and it was a unanimous decision by all the committee members.”
Settlement is on November 30.
My dad said That’s a shit idea lol