Golf Club loses half its members due to HS2

I wanted to join whittington heath. But despite hs2 they wont drop/reduce their £1200 joining fee. They lost money last Year too?????

Did that used to be Whittington Barracks? I played in a Junior Open there many years ago. Heathland course with lots of heather as I recall.
 
Track will pass a couple of hundred yards from the new Aylesbury Parkway Station
Is it stopping? is it heck

So if I want to get to Birmingham by public transport I can catch the tube 20 miles into London, cross london and get HS2, OR I can drive/bus to Wycombe and pick up the EXISTING Chiltern Line to Snow Hill

And whats more HS2 isnt actually going to the centre of Birmingham, its stopping about 7 miles north east of the city, so you will have to catch a shuttle train to get you to the centre

And who wants to go to Birmingham anyway GRRRRR

If you remember I have previously pointed out that the HS2 station in Birmingham will be at Lawley Street in the City Centre.

And as for who wants to get to Birmingham anyway; well I will dismiss that as the ranting of a typical Home Counties NIMBY.
 
that is my sort of impression too. They are ploughing through the countryside uprooting and unsettling peoples lives so that you can get to London a few minutes quicker......:rolleyes:

I personally would prefer to see them invest money in trying to improve the road network in the UK.

So if the road network was to be massively upgraded would that not involve ploughing through the countryside and unsetle peoples' lives.
 
If you remember I have previously pointed out that the HS2 station in Birmingham will be at Lawley Street in the City Centre.

And as for who wants to get to Birmingham anyway; well I will dismiss that as the ranting of a typical Home Counties NIMBY.

Happy to stand corrected and yes I probably am a typical Home Counties nimby , there are lots of us :)
 
Ruisip is a municipal, so they didn't have that many members anyway. A bit of a flat featureless track anyway. Might be improved by HS2.

Uxbridge lost 6 holes due to a new gas main about 6 years ago. the company that was supposed to restore them declared themselves bankrupt. They have struggled since. Not surprisingly. Shame, it used to be a nice enough course.


Harefield Place GC (based at Uxbridge) is slowly dying due to there being only 12 holes. At last count there were around 35 members of whom 15 were "away" or "inactive" members, some having retained their memberships due to loyalty and old friendships. Used to play here every week but it is soul-destroying to play 6 holes twice, week after week. There's only one regular group now that plays on a Sunday, all the others are casual players. Can't remember when I last played there! :o
The course was a very good test for the average player with hardly any flat lies and the greens were very well looked after. Then the management company got into difficulties following the announcement of the gas pipeline works. It was all downhill after that as council and new management co. bickered about plans for "reinstatement". Unless the council is prepared to spend money to reinstate the missing holes there is only one end in sight! :(

I've played Ruislip a few times and although not a 'championship' style course I thought it was pleasant enough. Used to have a driving range, a nice clubhouse/function rooms and a decent shop. Don't know if this is still the case, but it's still a shame to lose it. Ditto Uxbridge. Both muni type golf courses within a few miles of each other, so good places for beginners.


Ruislip is only playable in good weather, as one heavyish rainfall can waterlog the clay soil. Not unusual to find all sorts on there as it's a beginners course in the main. Members have recently left en masse and joined Northwood GC, or so I've heard, and the blight of HS2 will kill the club. The only way for the club to survive is for HS2 to be cancelled....and soon as well. :sbox:
 
If you remember I have previously pointed out that the HS2 station in Birmingham will be at Lawley Street in the City Centre.

And as for who wants to get to Birmingham anyway; well I will dismiss that as the ranting of a typical Home Counties NIMBY.

I have never, ever, in my life met anyone who has willfully expressed the view that they wanted to get to Birmingham 12 minutes faster than it is currently possible. I just haven't.
 
I have never, ever, in my life met anyone who has willfully expressed the view that they wanted to get to Birmingham 12 minutes faster than it is currently possible. I just haven't.
Isn't this all about getting to London quicker as everything revolves around putting all money into London. Way too many people going to be affected by a train line costing billions that's guaranteed never to break even. Why would people in Manchester and Birmingham want to get to London a few mins faster for the sake of paying extra rail fares to get to stations that are miles away from city centres. Ridiculous.
 
The point that's being missed here is, why would you want to go to Birmingham? I've been there, rotten place
 
Harefield Place GC (based at Uxbridge) is slowly dying due to there being only 12 holes. At last count there were around 35 members of whom 15 were "away" or "inactive" members, some having retained their memberships due to loyalty and old friendships. Used to play here every week but it is soul-destroying to play 6 holes twice, week after week. There's only one regular group now that plays on a Sunday, all the others are casual players. Can't remember when I last played there! :o
The course was a very good test for the average player with hardly any flat lies and the greens were very well looked after. Then the management company got into difficulties following the announcement of the gas pipeline works. It was all downhill after that as council and new management co. bickered about plans for "reinstatement". Unless the council is prepared to spend money to reinstate the missing holes there is only one end in sight! :(




Ruislip is only playable in good weather, as one heavyish rainfall can waterlog the clay soil. Not unusual to find all sorts on there as it's a beginners course in the main. Members have recently left en masse and joined Northwood GC, or so I've heard, and the blight of HS2 will kill the club. The only way for the club to survive is for HS2 to be cancelled....and soon as well. :sbox:

It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good! I understand that Northwood GC was getting quite short of members a couple of years ago, not helped by awful greens, but a new greenkeeper has turned things around there and I believe they now have a waiting list for new members. Our club (Batchworth Park) just down the road in Rickmansworth has vacancies for new members,
 
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So if the road network was to be massively upgraded would that not involve ploughing through the countryside and unsetle peoples' lives.

Obviously it will, but the people it will be affecting most will no be the ones benefitting from it. The official site quotes it being 30 mins faster from London to Birmingham, so that would be good for some people.

Take someone in the Aylesbury area, currently it is a couple of hours to get to new street. But it is 1:30 to get to Euston, to then get the 50 min HS2 train to Birmingham. So it is quicker to go straight from Aylesbury, than use the HS2 and no doubt will be a lot cheaper.

Putting in better road networks would be a benefit to all, not just people in London or Birmingham. Take this as an example, yesterday I drove from Westminster Orange County to LAX on the I405 at 8:00am. Now this is a main commuter route into LA from its main commuter belt south of the city and also the main route to LAX. It took 40 mins to do this 30 mile trip. In November it took me over 2 hours to get to Heathrow from the a1 junction, similar distance trip at a similar time of day. Better road systems would be fantastic IMO.
 
I'm assuming the government will have to buy any land required to build this disastrous waste of tax payers money so these clubs affected can rebuild??
 
I'm assuming the government will have to buy any land required to build this disastrous waste of tax payers money so these clubs affected can rebuild??

Quite so for privately owned clubs, but when your clubs land is leased from the local council and a local hotel, they are the ones to get the cash and it isn't going to be ploughed into building a new course :(
 
First things first, I am a local to little chalfont, HS2 is coming through the the chalfonts. Do I care, well actually no, I don't, why? Well I don't intend to stay in this area. The problem as I see it, is that this country has issues with London being the central hub, a lot of unnecessary businesses are based in London for the cashe. When you start to question why business needs to be in London, you will hear some pretty pathetic excuses. Reduce people going into London, spread them out into other areas and you'll pretty much unburden all the transport networks.
Another interesting point about HS2 is it was intended to be a bit straighter, but the land is owned by major Tory party contributors, hence a rather large political fall out and some re-routing. As I am not a Tory, I find this highly amusing as well, what would be even funnier would be a labour government getting back in and re-instating the route through the Tory contributors land.... I think I would loose my bladder control laughing so hard! ( the issue that a wealthy few can stuff the rest of us gets up my nose... A little bit of parity please would be nice)
As for updating existing stuff, well that would be a huge undertaking as the track gauge is too narrow for fast trains ( you should blame the Germans for bombing fields and not systematically destroying our networks - all of WW2 losers have fantastic transport networks) .
I did ask my present club where hs2 was going and it was 2 miles to the right of the club and to be counter sunk. I have experienced a club being changed by major transport re-routing, the club suffers for a period of time, but this can be minimised by having a plan and negotiating the change over to be minimal. Meaning the new holes are built before the old holes are lost.

So really guys simple solution is not to work in London ...
 
Oh yeah and the tax payer will pay for it... They will suffer its inconvenience etc.. And the Tory's will privatise it ( and why do you all vote for them, because they have one economic policy and that is sell cheaply any national asset..just look at the electrical company debacle/ farce, or the networks not re-investing in their own infrastructure ... )
 
Quite so for privately owned clubs, but when your clubs land is leased from the local council and a local hotel, they are the ones to get the cash and it isn't going to be ploughed into building a new course :(

Have you got any plans to jump ship to somewhere that won't be affected?
 
Obviously it will, but the people it will be affecting most will no be the ones benefitting from it. The official site quotes it being 30 mins faster from London to Birmingham, so that would be good for some people.

Take someone in the Aylesbury area, currently it is a couple of hours to get to new street. But it is 1:30 to get to Euston, to then get the 50 min HS2 train to Birmingham. So it is quicker to go straight from Aylesbury, than use the HS2 and no doubt will be a lot cheaper.

Putting in better road networks would be a benefit to all, not just people in London or Birmingham. Take this as an example, yesterday I drove from Westminster Orange County to LAX on the I405 at 8:00am. Now this is a main commuter route into LA from its main commuter belt south of the city and also the main route to LAX. It took 40 mins to do this 30 mile trip. In November it took me over 2 hours to get to Heathrow from the a1 junction, similar distance trip at a similar time of day. Better road systems would be fantastic IMO.

Absolutely ludicrous to compare California, where land never has been at a premium, with the condensed island we occupy. Also there is little or no travel undertaken by rail in the western states of USA.

As for those who are effected by road development being those who benefit I am sorry but try explaining that to farmers in South Warwickshire whose farms were cut in half by the M40.
 
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