Golf course has five years left until redevelopment plans happen

Smugglers Cove at Pier Approach in the town centre has been awarded an extra five years to stay on the site until it has to be removed. 

Operated by BCP Council, the 18-hole adventure golf course was due to be removed in January 2024 – five years after it was first installed. 

However, council documents state that after the next five year period is up in 2029, the popular course will be removed. 

Smugglers Cove

Planning consent for the course was given to Bournemouth Borough Council’s regeneration team in 2019 on the basis the site was allocated to Bournemouth Development Company (BDC) for a “comprehensive” redevelopment. 

This has not yet happened and BDC nor the council still have any immediate plans to redevelop the site. 

The old Waterfront building

Prior to the golf course, the site was home to The Waterfront building housing an Imax cinema, restaurants, and bars. 

The building was then purchased by Bournemouth council for £7.5million 2010 before full demolition was completed in 2013. 

Smugglers Cove, meanwhile, opened to the public in the summer of 2019 and attracts 50,000 to 60,000 visitors per year, according to the council. 

A case officer report granting permission for an extra five years said the course is “acceptable for temporary use but not for long term usage”. 

It said: “It is acknowledged that the adventure golf course may bring benefits to the tourism and leisure offering on the seafront and that in many ways.  

“Nevertheless, the reasons given for the temporary consent still stand in terms of the proposal not according with the policy which holds that the allocated site of Bath Road South be developed comprehensively.  

“Furthermore, the design as it stands is considered to be acceptable for a temporary use but not for a long-term usage of the site. 

“Given these factors it is considered acceptable to permit another five years use of the site through the variation of the condition with a new condition added to ensure this is a further five-year use of the site rather than a full permanent consent.”