HBC - The future of Bushey Country Club site - gauging public opinion

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Background: Bushey Country Club is a 21 hectare (approx.) site in a prominent position in Bushey which Hertsmere Borough Council bought in the mid-1990s as an investment asset. It comprises a nine-hole golf course, driving range, health and fitness facilities, function rooms, bar and catering facilities, a community centre and has also been the base for a council area office and for the local policing team. It also has a large car park and has been the base for several small businesses - car wash, hairdressers, chiropodist etc. In 2012, Hertsmere Leisure Trust was awarded the contract to manage our leisure services across the borough, Bushey Country Club among them. The financial losses at Bushey Country Club have become unsustainable for Hertsmere Leisure, whilst other sites have performed considerably better, leading them to agree with us that they would end their operating arrangement with effect from 1April 2018. Understandably, there has been a lot of interest in this news - including significant traffic on social media sites, along with two well attended public meetings hosted by a residents' group, The Bushey Forum. Adding to the contentiousness, the site falls on green belt land. The council is now working to decide what best to do with the site and, in the interim, has put in place arrangements to keep the site secure and to keep the community centre open for bookings. The site is a valuable asset for Hertsmere Borough Council and we are duty bound to secure the best possible return on this asset for the benefit of ALL our residents across the borough, not just those in Bushey. We have issued a number of news releases to ensure that local residents, stakeholders and other interested parties are kept updated. These can all be found on our Bushey Country Club webpage - www.hertsmere.gov.uk/busheycountryclub Brief: At a recent council meeting, it was agreed that our Asset Management department should commission professional services to carry out soft market testing and evaluate the viability of the best possible re-development opportunities for the Bushey Country Club site. That process is under way. Following the completion of that work and once some viable options have been identified, it was agreed that the council would commission an established opinion research company to survey - using credible methodology - a representative sample of the population of Bushey and Hertsmere. This piece of work would be to gauge views in order to help with formal council decision-making on the options for the site going forward. This could be through focus groups, telephone surveys or other opinion research methodology as advised. The population of Bushey is around 20,000 but we also consider it necessary to gauge views from borough of Hertsmere residents more widely given that it is a borough council-owned asset. The output needs to be credible and representative. Expected output: The ...