A CLOSED Wirral golf course has been seriously vandalised for the second time this month.

Brackenwood Golf Course near Bebington was closed last year as part of the council’s budget cuts.

Since then the course has been managed for free by volunteers at the golf club there while they wait for Wirral Council to decide whether to allow it to move into community hands.

During this time, the course has been plagued by vandalism, set fire to, and targeted by fly tippers dumping on the course. Last year it was damaged by people on buggies and on May 8 and May 24, it’s been damaged even further. It has been reported to the police.

A post on Brackenwood Golf Club’s Facebook page on May 25 called it “an absolute disgrace,” adding: “Some people just think criminal damage is ok, that they can dig up golf greens that have been looked after by volunteers.

“This is something we said would happen when the land isn’t being used for golf or anything else. It is totally unacceptable and so serious we will be reporting to the police.”

Keith Marsh, secretary of the golf club, said he was “shocked, frustrated, annoyed but not surprised. We have had incidents of vandalism before.

“We have never had scrambler bikes on the golf course as far as I can remember because it was previously being used as a leisure facility.

“For us it’s the concern that there is an awful lot of work to do and because it’s on the green it will cost so much more. I think for the club as a whole, especially the people who have been volunteering, who have given blood, sweat, and tears to then see that sort of damage is really disheartening.”

The golf course is currently closed but there is hope it could reopen as councillors overturned officer recommendations to turn the course into sports pitches.

Officers said the pitch proposal was due to an “intensification” of greenbelt issues in recent months as well as the council “finding it quite challenging to find the sites for future playing pitch provision.”

Councillors praised the golf club’s plans for the course which included ways to improve biodiversity, and pointed to the large public turnout at the meeting opposed to it closing for good.

Cllr Helen Cameron, the chair of the council’s tourism, communities, culture and leisure committee, said at the meeting: “We often look for proof of concept when discussing ideas as councillors and I really feel the stewardship under the local community as well as the one potential bidder has been exemplary and that is the kind of reassurance that I was looking for.”

The final terms of the agreement have now been submitted to the council with the issue due to come up at the next committee meeting in June. It will then move to the senior Policy and Resources Committee before going out to public consultation, the standard process for public open spaces.