Public support for golf course

More than 3000 people have signed a petition to save the nine-hole golf course at Frankton.

Operator Queenstown Golf Club has spent the last four weeks gaining support for its fight to keep its lease of the Frankton course.

Club chief executive Michael Shattock said the Queenstown Lakes District Council had informed the club it would not be renewing the Frankton lease "in its current form" after it expired in 2012, because the land was earmarked for expansion of the Queenstown Events Centre.

The club decided to lobby the community for support and started circulating a petition early last month.

Mr Shattock told the Queenstown Times the petition had more than 3000 signatures yesterday.

"The petition is going really well. Everyone seems keen to sign. It's an important local issue that everyone seems to be behind," he said.

The petition was on display at the Frankton course and the Queenstown Golf Club at Kelvin Heights.

Supporters had also spent the day outside supermarkets to get more signatures.

The petition would run until the end of the month and then be presented to the council.

He said the Frankton course was the oldest in the Wakatipu basin.

"It's a valuable community facility that needs to be retained. It has been in that location since the 1930s," he said.

The club needed to have "security of tenure" so it could invest money in improving the course.

"We can't to that if we don't know if we are going to be there from one year to the other," he said.

Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Clive Geddes said the golf club had been advised about three or four years ago that its lease would not be renewed on its current terms and conditions.

He said there were a "series of potential and actual conflicting uses" for the golf course land, which was owned freehold by Queenstown Airport Corporation.

"The land is Crown land vested in council. It is not correct that it was gifted for the purposes of golf," he said.

Lakes Leisure's strategic plan identified the need for this land for future playing fields five years ago.

"That strategy has been provided to the golf club, has been publicly consulted on and was in the 10-year plan for further consultation," he said.

Given the land's potential, the council could not review the lease for 20 or 30 years, as it had done in the past.

The council had investigated alternatives sites for a nine-hole course, including an offer by Jacks Point to give a completed nine-hole course.

However, all alternatives had been rejected by the golf club, he said.

The council was in discussions with the New Zealand Transport Agency, Queenstown Airport Corporation and Lakes Leisure about possible uses for the land.

It would be at least another year before plans were "crystalised", he said.

"That doesn't mean golf can't continue on land around the Events Centre," he said.

However, the council could choose to move the course and/or allow it to be run by Lakes Leisure.

"The council has not made any decision on whether the activity of golf is able to continue on all or part of this land or not. It could be that a nine-hole course is able to be accommodated within the Events Centre land," he said.