PLANS to create a new country park at Canford Magna Golf Course land have been recommended for approval by planning officers.

The application from landowners Canford Renewable Energy (CRE) would see the ‘Riverside’ part of the private golf course, which closed in April, turned into ‘Canford Park’.

It would offer free parking, waymarked circular walks, dog exercise areas, and riverside walks along the Stour.

Under the proposal, which is being discussed at a Borough of Poole planning meeting this afternoon, the 47.95ha greenbelt site would become a designated Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace - or SANG - similar to a country park but created with the specific purpose of reducing the recreational impact of new housing developments on the Dorset heathlands.

The proposal comes after an application for a quarry at the golf course was turned down by planners in May this year.

Then developers put forward plans for mineral extraction across 36 hectares, before the turning the whole 95 hectare site into parkland.

The documents coming before councillors state that “Canford Park has the potential to open up a vast swathe of private land to the public and deliver unprecedented access to the southern bank of the River Stour.”

They call the proposed park “a valuable community resource” which could “serve to encourage new walkers, thereby contributing to health and wellbeing.”

But Merely and Bearwood ward councillor Marion Pope remains unconvinced.

She told the Echo she would be objecting to the plans, calling the proposed new park “not an altruistic gift” but “the thin end of the wedge” in the light of ambitions to build houses on nearby green belt sites.

“The SANG is a Trojan horse,” she added.

“It is the forerunner of invading forces of developers going to concrete over the green belt.”