Community Golf & Leisure Trust
Broome Manor Golf Complex
24th March 2020
Dear Members,
As you are all aware, the Prime Minister has ordered people to stay at home. This means that we have had to shut down the complex and golf courses at Broome Manor, and this closure will remain in place until further notice.
The purpose of this letter is to keep you all informed with regards your monthly membership fees. Please read this carefully before making any decisions.
The greenkeepers will be working hard to maintain the golf course including cutting the grass and other day to day jobs keeping the course in condition until it reopens. We know the growth rate will significantly increase over the next few weeks/months. They will also have the opportunity to improve areas that we may have struggled to do with golfers on the course. Without the greenkeepers working hard as usual we will NOT have a course to come back to but because only “furloughed” workers are eligible for the 80% wages subsidy our Greens staff will not be eligible. Accordingly Community Golf & Leisure Trust who run the course under a lease from Twigmarket will have to pay these staff wages, pension contributions and other operating costs (which reach a peak at this time of year) whilst the course is closed and without customers.
Sadly the Community Golf & Leisure Trust is not eligible for the £25,0000 Business Rates grant as the Rateable Value of the courses exceeds £51,000 which was the limit. The Trust will be applying for a Business interruption Loan but this will take some time and it is not expected to be received for at least 6-8 weeks even if the application is successful which is not guaranteed. Hence the financial position is very precarious to say the least.
We understand that everyone is also currently suffering under very different circumstances and, because of that we would like to offer you three options to alter your memberships with effect from May 1st.
Option 1
Do nothing and your Membership fee will be processed as normal thereby really helping to pay for the upkeep of the course during this closed period.
Option 2
We can reduce your membership by 50%, this will help contribute toward the staffs basic salaries and the maintenance of the golf course during the closed period.
Option 3
To freeze your membership until further notice. If you do this you will remain in your current contract and you will not be subject to sign up fees when the membership is restarted.
If you would like to take Option 2 or Option 3 please email us admin@broomemanorgolf.co.uk and we will ensure action is taken before May 1st.
If we do not hear from you, we will assume you have selected Option 1 and we will continue to process your membership fee as usual. We hope and pray that a large number of you will opt for Option 1 or 2 and continue to pay all or some of your DD’s at the current or reduced rate to enable us to look after the course while it is closed.
For those that have paid their membership upfront we will extend your yearly subscription once we are open if you wish to do so. Again please email the above address.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
It is too late to change April 1st monthly DD payments as Clubwise, who process our Memberships, require 2 weeks advance notice of any changes to monthly amounts. There unfortunately is nothing we can do about this and thus the full monthly amount will be taken on April 1st. Thus the changes envisaged in the 3 options above will start from May 1st.
You do of course have the additional option of canceling your direct debit with your bank immediately, which some people have already done, but this will terminate your membership and you will be required to sign a new 12 month contract and pay the joining fee when we are open.
The Trust would like to thank you for the support you are giving us through this difficult time, and I hope that you continue to support us to ensure we have a golf course to come back to in the, not to distant future.
Stay healthy, stay safe, stay in.
Yours sincerely
Golf Management Team