By Ryan Sands
A public consultation on “proposed modifications to Royal County Down (RCD) Golf Club’s championship golf course” will begin in August.
On Tuesday, 16 June, the club lodged a Proposal of Application Notice (PAN) – submissions of which are required at least 12 weeks before full planning applications deemed to be major or regionally significant – for yet to be specified modifications to the 96.65-hectare course with council planners.
An accompanying letter submitted by planning consultants Clyde Shanks states community consultation on the PAN will take place in the Newcastle Centre on Wednesday, 26 August, from 4 to 7pm.
This will “comprise a number of large wallboards that will graphically explain what is proposed, enabling interested parties to understand the nature of the development and how the scheme may look when completed”.
On the same day, information on the future planning proposal will be posted at www.clydeshanks.com/public-consultations, and this will be available to view for 28 days.
Both will provide opportunities for feedback, which will be summarised in a Pre-Application Community Consultation Report to be submitted with the full planning application.
The PAN acknowledges that, due to the size of the site area, the application may be “subject to the completion of an environmental impact assessment report”.
RCD most recently hosted the Irish Open in September 2024.
Clyde Shanks’ website highlights that the company was “appointed to manage all planning related requirements to secure full permission for golf course and infrastructural changes to transform Royal Portrush into a venue capable of hosting one of the four major global golf tournaments, the Open Championship”.
The Open returned to the North Coast course in 2019.
