Plans approved for new facilities at closed Bucks golf club and hotel

Plans to install new facilities at Stoke Park have been approved as the Buckinghamshire golf club and hotel is set to fully re-open this year.

The 300-acre country estate in Stoke Poges shut its doors in 2021 for renovations shortly after Stoke Park Limited was purchased by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries.

In a fresh update, some of the internal works to the 18^th century Grade I listed mansion house at the estate have now been completed.

Buckinghamshire Council has granted retrospective planning permission for the replacement of a temporary large air curtain in the entrance hall of the mansion and the conversion of the lower ground floor changing rooms into a commercial kitchen.

An air curtain is a device that creates an invisible wall of air to prevent air contaminants or insects moving from one area to another.

Stoke Park’s male and female changing rooms were fitted out in 1995 with lockers, benches, showers and toilet areas. However, the facilities became ‘too small and inappropriate for modern requirements’, according to Stoke Park’s planning application.

Planning documents state: “The existing kitchen and back-of-house facilities were also inadequate, most of the kitchen equipment had reached the end of service life, storage areas in very poor condition both from a hygiene perspective and aesthetically.

“In order to ensure that Stoke Park provides the highest quality servicing and food preparation areas for guests and members, works were undertaken to install a new commercial kitchen with associated areas such as cold rooms, potwash, pastry kitchen, vegetable preparation kitchen, freezer room, storerooms, chefs office and the main commercial kitchen.”

In another update, Stoke Park is also seeking permission to carry out external works within the grounds of the sprawling estate.

A fishpond and pergola have been installed at the site ready for social events held within the grounds. Stoke Park is currently trying to get retrospective consent from the council for these works.

It is also seeking non-retrospective permission for a metal balustrade with a gate at the entrance to the pergola and along the edge of the pond.

The plans also include installing a fenced 1.2m wide wooden bridge over the pond, which will replace the existing temporary bridge.

The long leasehold of Stoke Park is held by Stoke Park Limited, while the freehold is owned by Buckinghamshire Council.

From June 1, golfers will be welcomed back to ‘pay and play’ on Stoke Park’s historic course, which featured in James Bond film Goldfinger.

Meanwhile, the Boodles tennis tournament is also set to return to the estate next month.