Golf club forced to change course due to 'encroachment' from £340m Simister Island motorway project

A golf club is set to reconfigure its course due to a massive motorway widening scheme around Simister island. Pike Fold in Unsworth bills itself as ‘north Manchester’s premier golf club' due to its professional standard greens.

But a proposed carriageway widening and realignment of the M66, M62 and M60 means the motorway would come to close to some of the current playing area meaning a range of changes to the course. National Highways have proposed a new free-flow link (northern loop) from the M60 eastbound to M60 southbound carriageways at Simister.

They also plan to realign the M66 southbound carriageway on the approach to the junction. A new two-lane free-flow road from the M60 northbound to the M60 westbound to replace the existing single-lane would be created and the M66 would be widened southbound to four lanes through junction 18.

There would also be a conversion of the hard shoulder into a permanent traffic lane between M60 junctions 17 and 18, providing five lanes in both directions. The project is estimated to cost between £207m and £340m.

It is an echo from the past for the golf club as it was previously forced to move from its Blackley location at the end of the 1990s, again to accommodate the M60 motorway. A planning application lodged with Bury Council this week, requests changes to several holes at the course.

A supporting letter says the changes are ‘due to the impact of the Simister Island development along the M60 to maintain safety margins from the encroaching motorway widening’. The report, added: “It has now been agreed that the safest option for all concerned would be to move the greens further from the affected boundary.”

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The works will include