A golf club is seeking permission to build housing on the outskirts of Bexhill.

In an application to Rother District Council, Cooden Beach Golf Club proposes to build four detached houses and a five-unit apartment building on part of its course in Cooden Sea Road.

The application says it would involve the “shortening” of the course’s 18th hole, but adds the loss would be offset through funding for “much-needed improvements” to other club facilities.

It states: “Cooden Beach Golf Club was established in 1912 and has been a defining feature of this part of Cooden for over a century.

An artist's impression of the proposed development. Image: Cooden Beach Golf Club

placeholder image — An artist's impression of the proposed development. Image: Cooden Beach Golf Club

“The club occupies an extensive landholding and its continued vitality is important both to its membership and to the wider community it serves.

“The development of a modest parcel of land at the eastern edge of the landholding presents an opportunity to generate capital to deliver site wide improvements to the club and its facilities for members, whilst delivering a small number of high-quality new homes in a location that has been identified as suitable for residential development.”

National planning policies seek to resist the loss of sports facilities unless they are surplus to requirement or would be replaced by equal or better facilities.

The club’s application acknowledges how the policies mean the changes to the course would need ‘justification’. The documents says Rother planning officers, in proving pre-application advice, said improvements to other club facilities “would form part of that justification.”

If approved, the application would be four five-bedroom detached houses fronting Cooden Sea Road. Each would have a garden and driveway.

The apartment building would share an existing entrance used by the golf club. It would be two-and-a-half storeys tall and have a communal garden and a private parking court. Each apartment would be expected to have two-bedrooms.

The application says the site is in an “exceptionally sustainable location”, given its close proximity to Cooden Beach railway station. There would be a hedge buffer to the site’s eastern boundary of Cooden Sea Road.

For further information see application reference RR/2026/1284/FULL on the Rother District Council website.