Two TrackMan golf bays open at The Ashford Cinema on 4 September, from £28 for 55 minutes for four. The cinema is a company the borough council owns.

Two indoor golf simulators open at The Ashford Cinema on Friday 4 September, and bookings are already live. A 55-minute session starts at £28 for a bay holding up to four people.

The council announced the launch on 20 August. It reads like any other opening notice for a town centre business. It is not quite that, because The Ashford Cinema is not an ordinary tenant of Elwick Place. It is a company owned by Ashford Borough Council.

What you get for £28

The two bays run TrackMan, the launch-monitor system used on professional tours. According to the council’s announcement:

  • more than 500 courses are loaded, alongside challenges and competitions
  • each bay is private, with its own seating area and table
  • food and drink are brought to the bay
  • a full 18-hole round can be finished in under two hours
  • sessions of 55 minutes start from £28 for the bay, for up to four people

The bays can also be booked for birthday parties, group celebrations, corporate team-building and private hire. The cinema says there will be giveaways and promotions over the launch weekend.

Ben Hammond, General Manager at The Ashford Cinema, said the simulators give people “an exciting new way to spend time together”, whether they are experienced golfers or “trying it for the first time”.

Councillor Noel Ovenden, Leader of Ashford Borough Council, said Elwick Place “has an important role to play in supporting Ashford’s evening and leisure economy”, and that further additions and announcements are still to come.

Who actually owns the cinema

The council’s release does not say so, but the operator is its own company. Ashford Cinema Limited was incorporated on 7 February 2024, company number 15473154, registered for motion picture projection.

Ashford Borough Council is recorded on the register as the only person with significant control, notified on the day the company was formed. It holds 75% or more of the shares and 75% or more of the voting rights, and it has the right to appoint and remove directors. The company’s registered office is care of the council at International House, Dover Place, and all four officers give the same address.

The company’s first accounts, covering 7 February 2024 to 31 March 2025, were filed on 5 November 2025. They were prepared under the small companies regime, so no income statement was delivered under section 444 of the Companies Act 2006. There is no published turnover or profit figure. What the balance sheet does show:

Panel of figures from the first accounts of Ashford Cinema Limited to 31 March 2025: cash at bank £163,112, £185,659 owed within one year, a £100,000 secured loan from the council, £93,454 owed to the company, net assets of £1 and an average of 20 employees
The company's first period on the public record. The income statement was not delivered, so there is no published turnover.
  • £163,112 in cash at bank and in hand at 31 March 2025
  • £93,454 owed to the company, including £22,568 from group undertakings
  • £185,659 owed by it within a year, of which £70,682 was trade creditors and £58,253 tax and social security
  • £100,000 owed after more than a year, which the notes identify as a loan from the parent entity, secured by fixed and floating charges over everything the company owns
  • net assets of £1, matching the single £1 ordinary share
  • an average of 20 employees over the period

The auditors’ report was unqualified. The notes name Ashford Borough Council as the immediate and ultimate parent, and confirm the company is consolidated into the council’s own accounts.

Two charges are registered, both in the council’s favour and both outstanding. The first was created on 24 April 2024 over the leasehold property described as unit 7, Elwick Place. The second was created on 11 March 2026 and delivered a week later, and carries no public description. A sub-division of the company’s shares was recorded on 2 March 2026, in the same fortnight.

The next accounts, covering the year to 31 March 2026, are due by 31 December 2026. Those will be the first to cover a full trading year.

What it means for you

If you want to play on the opening weekend, book now rather than turning up. There are only two bays, each takes up to four people, and a full round runs close to two hours, so the number of slots in a day is small.

Check what the £28 covers before you book. The council’s wording is “from just £28 per bay for up to four people” for 55 minutes, which is a starting price, not a flat one. Peak evening and weekend rates are the usual place where an off-peak headline price stops applying, and the booking page is the only source for the rate on the day you want.

If you are pricing a group night out, the per-head arithmetic is what makes this cheap or not. Four people in one bay for 55 minutes is £7 each at the starting price. Two people in the same bay is £14 each for the same time.

The ownership matters for a different reason. When a council owns the operator, is the landlord and is also the secured lender, the council’s exposure is not limited to rent. The £100,000 loan is secured over the whole of the company’s undertaking, and a second charge was registered in March 2026. The accounts for the year to March 2026 will be the first that show how the business is actually trading, and they are due before the end of December.

For what else is on locally, see our guide to things to do in Ashford. The council’s other cinema project, the former Odeon, is on a separate track. It is looking for an operator to run the building as a cultural and community venue, and expects to identify a preferred one in early 2027.

Sources