A wedding and events management company has moved into a vacant country club site.

SMM (UK) Ltd will occupy the Bushey Country Club site while Hertsmere Borough Council finds a solution to the long-term future of the site.

The club shut down in April following years of “unsustainable” financial losses.

The move for SMM was agreed back in July by the council’s Executive but the company has only just moved in now.

Councillor Paul Morris OBE, responsible for community and economic development, explained: “Whilst we continue to work on developing a range of options for the longer term future of the site and consult Hertsmere residents, we considered it prudent to go out to the market for expressions of interest to occupy the site on a ‘meanwhile’ basis.

“We’re delighted that SMM (UK) Ltd are now occupying the site, fulfilling our undertaking to generate income from this council asset and to keep it as a busy, functioning hub for Bushey, and the borough more widely, for the next two to five years.

“They’ll operate wedding and events management at the site, and also take responsibility for maintaining the golf course and other utilities.

“The community centre, which is seeing a good level of usage, will be able to continue to operate as part of this plan and the pay and display car park will remain under the council's management.”

The country club site has been put forward as a site of possible housing development as part of Hertsmere’s local plan.