ROYAL Lytham St Annes Golf Club have bowed to extreme public opposition and made a shock U-turn on plans to build an access road in preparation for next year's British Open.

Nigel Hill, director of planning for Fylde Borough Council, confirmed that the club secretary, Lytton Goodwin, has written a letter on behalf of club bosses, saying that the access road will no longer go ahead due to the level of public protest against it.

We first reported the public protests in The Citizen back in May of this year.

The proposed road, which was to stretch from the edge of Worsley Road beyond the end of Central Drive, was to increase access to the course but a speedily created opposition group soon made their objections known.

Gerald and Brenda Wildish, who live in Worsley Road, spearheaded the campaign after the club razed more than 1,000 trees in preparation for the road, saying it destroyed protected species and caused considerable environmental damage. Nigel Hill, from Fylde planning authority, said: "At a meeting on July 14 we decided to investigate the club's proposals more thoroughly in the light of complaints from the public. After doing this we asked them to submit an altered plan which must include some level of replanting.

"In the last fortnight we received a letter saying they were withdrawing the application altogether and would replant the woodland which has been destroyed."

Although the planning application for the road has been withdrawn, a ditch which the club had dug will remain, as it was the result of a court order.

Brenda Wildish was elated at the victory for the protesters. She told The Citizen: "We are delighted and hugely relieved at the news of the U-turn. Many of us felt sick seeing the amount of woodland that has been destroyed unnecessarily."

She added: "It makes you question the conscience of an organisation that has failed in its duty of care as trustees of the land."

At the time of going to press, club secretary Lytton Goodwin was unavailable for comment.

Pictured here is the clubhouse at Royal Lytham.