A YORK golf club, which began in Edwardian times, is seeking to redevelop itself with extra soil to better protect it against flooding.

The Pike Hills Golf Course on Tadcaster Road, Copmanthorpe, says importing and grading soils on the 231632m2 site will improve drainage and allow for year-round golfing.

A planning application to City of York Council says the golf course, which has been the home of the club since 1946, has historically suffered drainage problems in low lying areas, problems exacerbated by the clay-based underlying soils.

It said: “This issue renders parts of the Golf Course unusable for several months throughout the year and on occasion the course must close entirely because it is completely unplayable. It is not sustainable for the Golf Course to continue having to close or for holes to be unplayable.“

The golf club, the application continues, has an existing planning permission, granted in 2014, to change 7.7ha of farmland, to extend the golf course. This extension has not yet taken place and a proposed redesign of the course would use this land.

Pike Hills Golf Club (which operates the golf course) was formed in 1904 as the Knavesmire Golf Club and moved to Hob Moor in 1922. The club moved to the current site in 1946, the planning application also said.

The site mainly falls within a Flood Zone 1 (the lowest category of flood risk), does not contain or form part of any designated heritage assets, or public rights of way and is situated within the Green Belt.

If approved, the club envisaged work would start in 2023, taking three years, and involve the importation of 352,000 cubic metres of uncontaminated soil and inert material to reprofile the golf course.

“In total, five holes are affected on the existing Golf Course, plus three new holes in the field to the north and the practice area is to be totally upgraded,” it explained.

“To develop the proposed new features, it will be necessary to cause some disturbance on the existing Golf Course. The development would be constructed over four Phases.

“The Proposed Development would introduce new playing areas and the re design of the Golf Course will improve maintenance as it will allow modern maintenance machinery to access additional areas of the Golf Course.”

There would also be new landscaping, and blocks of woodland would be planted, with plant species selected to reflect the existing species on site and nearby “to create an environment over the course which acts as a natural extension to the existing environmental features (particularly that of the adjacent Askham Bog SSSI). Natural habitats for wildlife have also been considered.”

The application added: “The Proposed Development would not introduce any new built structures to the Site. The visual appearance of the Site at present is that of a golf course, and this will remain the case through the Proposed Development.”