Plans for transforming a former golf course into a community parkland are one step closer to reality after more than £1million was set aside for its conversion.

Proposals for the site, which is of the former Deangate Ridge Golf Course, were put out for public consultation in August 2023 with final designs approved in February.

Now £1.16 million in funding has set aside by Medway Council for use in delivering the 43-acre site on the Hoo Peninsula with 2.5km of walking paths and cycle routes.

The local authority has agreed the release of section 106 funding, which is money agreed during the planning process between the council and developers to support local infrastructure and mitigate the impact of building, for the delivery of the planned green space.

At Medway Council’s cabinet meeting on June 11, £360,000 from the application for 127 homes south of Stoke Road, £560,000 from the application for 232 homes south of Ratcliffe Highway, and £150,000 for the approved 65 homes at White House Farm, all in Hoo St Werburgh, which were approved in 2017 and 2018, were set aside.

The plans would see the creation of dog walking paths, picnic areas, as well as protecting endangered wildlife which live on the land.

The golf course was closed in 2018 due to declining numbers and reported average losses of nearly £200,000 per year between 2007 and 2017. However the move attracted significant local opposition.

Extensive environmental testing of the site in November found the site is home to a variety of species, including great crested newts – the rarest species of newt in the UK.

Experts also found species of birds such as the mistle thrush, house sparrow, skylark, song thrush and nightingale – all on the conservation red list.

Medway Council’s portfolio holder for climate change and strategic regeneration, Cllr Simon Curry (Lab) said the money would be used to maintain strategic environmental management projects (SEMs) which were originally funded by the £170 million Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) which was withdrawn in July last year.

He said: “That money we lost last year but we decided to keep the SEMs projects alive and this is the first one of those.

“The site is now much more of a wild space and it has developed into a really lovely wildlife site - it’s really a quite beautiful place.

“To give you an indication of how popular this is, the park hasn’t even started yet and we’ve already got a friends group there which kicked off about a month ago, so local people are really keen on this and they’ll be banging on our door if we don’t do it.”

Council leader Vince Maple said the project was a delivery of an election promise made at the 2023 local elections to provide more green spaces for residents.

He added: “Our green spaces are valuable in the sense of health and well-being, the mental health, and that ability to come together as a community.

“We are delivering for the people of Medway, but specifically for the people of the Hoo Peninsula who, I understand their frustration sometimes when they say ‘I’m not against development, but I want infrastructure’ and that’s every form of infrastructure.

“We will keep fighting for more resources but we will deliver with the resources we have.”

The report was agreed unanimously by the cabinet and the funding is now available to the council to use for the parkland project.