ONE of Wales’ oldest golf clubs has been given the green light for a new building intended to take the sport into the future.
The Gwent club will be able to make use of computer aids, 3D projectors and AI to help members improve their swing as plans for an outbuilding to house a golf simulator have been approved.
Pontnewydd Golf Club applied for permission for the building at the end of last year and documents it submitted to Torfaen council’s planning department stated the building will house a teaching space for up to eight people and make use of “electronic AI simulators with 3D projectors for an interactive experience”.
‘Arguably the oldest golf club in Wales’
The Cwmbran club, whose home is a nine-hole mountain course, was established in 1875 when it was one of the few clubs in Britain outside of Scotland, and it describes itself as “arguably the oldest golf club in Wales”.
The timber-clad 3.6 metre high, five metres wide and 6m long building with grey metal roof and white UPVC window and door will be sited on an existing area of hardstanding next to existing sheds and the clubhouse.
Torfaen planning officer Simon Pritchard said, in a report which approved the application, though the club is outside of the urban boundary national and local policies allow development of “appropriate scale” at existing leisure sites and “the principle of strengthening and diversifying existing rural/leisure businesses is generally supported”.
It was also considered the “relatively small-scale building” would be screened by existing planting and buildings and distance from neighbouring properties meant there would be no significant impact on amenity while there is no external lighting planned and proposed native tree planting is considered acceptable.