ECCLESTON Park Golf Club is to close at the end of the month - but the future of the land is unclear.

Operators Crown Golf have are to terminate their management agreement of the club on June 30, members have been informed.

Uncertainty had surfaced over recent months over the future of the course after the land was purchased by a developer.

A freehold of the site was sold to Lymm-based developers Mulbury Homes Ltd, with an agreement in place for Crown Golf to continue operating the club until the end of the year.

However, in a correspondence to members which the Star has been made aware of, Crown Golf cited "increasingly challenging" trading conditions and a "decline in membership numbers" leading to the club being "no longer commercially viable".

The letter stated that "trading through the first half of 2018 has been increasingly challenging, impacted by both the extreme winter and also a significant decline in membership and continued uncertainty".

It adds the club will continue to operate as usual until the end of June and any membership subscriptions paid in advance for beyond June 30 will be refunded.

Eccleston Park Golf Club was developed in 1999 on the site of the old Rainhill Hospital Farm, where the patients used to help tend to crops.

A source told the Star that Crown Golf made the official statement on Thursday that the club will close as a business and that staff have been made aware.

When the Star contacted Mulbury Homes, they said no specific plans had yet been made over the future of the land.