The council has approved knocking down the Shoppenhangers Road clubhouse at about £70,000. Community groups asked to use the buildings and were turned down.

The Royal Borough has approved the demolition of the clubhouse and outbuildings at Maidenhead Golf Club, at a cost of about £70,000. Community groups asked to use the buildings in the meantime. They were turned down.

Two officer decisions were published on the council’s decision register on 2 September 2026. Both cover the same buildings on Shoppenhangers Road. Neither had appeared on the register before that date, and both were taken months earlier.

  • The first was taken on 15 May 2026 by the Assistant Director of Placemaking Partnerships and Sustainability. It is recorded as a key decision.
  • The second was taken on 17 July 2026 by the Executive Director of Place Services.
  • Both were published on 2 September 2026, 110 days after the first was made.
  • Neither is recorded as being subject to call-in.
Timeline showing outline planning permission for up to 1,500 homes granted in December 2025, a key decision to demolish the clubhouse on 15 May 2026, a second decision costing about £70,000 on 17 July 2026, and both decisions published on 2 September 2026
Both decisions reached the public register on the same day, months after they were taken.

What the record says it will cost

The July decision puts the figure plainly. Demolition will cost approximately £70,000, including contingency and risk. That money comes out of the wider project budget rather than this year’s revenue budget, so the council records no in-year impact on its day-to-day spending.

The reasons given are about liability rather than construction. The council says keeping the building standing carries:

  • ongoing costs for maintenance, utilities and business rates
  • continued security measures and the cost of them
  • “significant health and safety risks if the building is retained in terms of possible break-ins, damage or risk of accident”

The site, the record notes, “is secure and empty having closed some months ago”.

Community groups asked. The answer was no

This is the part residents are most likely to argue with.

The May decision records, under alternative options considered, that there were “enquiries by community groups for temporary use of buildings”, and that these were “rejected as these would be deemed to costly”.

The July decision sets out the same conclusion at more length. A “meanwhile use” of the building was, it says, “carefully considered”. It was discounted because:

  • the financial and operational risks to the council are significant and cannot be fully mitigated
  • “the duty of care and accountability for health and safety liability falls to the responsible senior officers who can be held personally liable for potential breaches”
  • any meanwhile use could only be short term in any case

There is a tension worth naming. The outline planning permission the council itself granted for the site expressly covers “demolition of existing buildings onsite … and temporary meanwhile uses”. The permission allows meanwhile use. The council decided against it on cost and liability grounds, not planning ones.

Neither decision names the community groups, and we are not going to guess at them.

What is replacing it

The buildings sit on the council’s own land. The Royal Borough is the freehold owner of the entire 54.18 hectare site, which is in Oldfield ward, roughly 500 metres south of Maidenhead town centre and just south of Maidenhead station.

Its joint venture partner is CALA Homes. Outline planning permission for the scheme, named Elizabeth Quarter, was granted in December 2025. The council’s own summary of what it will deliver:

  • up to 1,500 homes, including 30 per cent affordable
  • a new primary and a new secondary school
  • public open space, a local centre and a community hub
  • supporting infrastructure

The May decision is blunt about why the clubhouse has to go: the buildings “form part of the Cala JV Golf Club scheme and need to be removed”.

The same site is back in front of councillors this week. On Wednesday 9 September the Maidenhead Development Management Committee decides a separate application from CALA Homes to change nine conditions on that permission, including swapping the main Harvest Hill Road access from a roundabout to a priority junction. We have covered what members have been told about that vote separately.

The club is still playing, seven miles away

The demolition ends the site’s golfing life, not the club’s.

The Maidenhead Golf Club was formed in 1896. Its course opened for play on 12 December 1896, on land leased by W H Grenfell, Mayor of Maidenhead in 1895 and 1896, later Lord Desborough. Grenfell was among the club’s first 63 members, became its first president and presented the Grenfell Cup, which the club says is still played for each year.

The club now plays at Mill Ride, Ascot, SL5 8LT, about seven miles south of Maidenhead and just outside the Royal Borough, in Bracknell Forest. Its own course status page showed the full course open on Saturday 5 September.

What it means for you

  • If you live near the site, expect demolition traffic on Shoppenhangers Road and Harvest Hill Road at some point. Neither decision gives a start date, and the council has not published one.
  • If you were hoping for a community use of the buildings, that door is closed. The decision is made and neither notice is subject to call-in.
  • If you want to influence what gets built, the live route is the planning process, not the asset decisions. The reserved matters applications, which fix the actual design, layout, scale and landscaping, are still to come.
  • The nearest thing happening this week is the Manor Lane closure off Harvest Hill Road, from Wednesday to Friday. That is separate streetlight ducting work, not part of this scheme.

We have asked nothing of the council for this report and quoted nothing that is not on its own register. If the council publishes a demolition date or a contractor, we will report it here. More local planning coverage is on our Windsor planning news page.

Sources

  • Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, decision register: Demolition of Maidenhead Golf Club House and external buildings, decision taken 15 May 2026, published 2 September 2026, and Maidenhead Golf Course - Clubhouse demolition, decision taken 17 July 2026, published 2 September 2026.
  • Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Maidenhead Golf Club regeneration page, for the CALA Homes joint venture, the December 2025 outline permission and the scheme contents.
  • Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead planning register, application 26/00885/VAR, and the description of outline permission 24/00091/OUT it varies, for the wording covering demolition and temporary meanwhile uses.
  • Officer report to the Maidenhead Development Management Committee on 26/00885/VAR, for the 54.18 hectare site area, the council’s freehold ownership and the site’s position relative to Maidenhead town centre and station.
  • The Maidenhead Golf Club club history and contact pages, for the 1896 founding, the 12 December 1896 opening, W H Grenfell and the club’s present address at Mill Ride, Ascot.

Checked 5 September 2026.