Wimbledon given green light for controversial tennis expansion plans
Wimbledon’s controversial plans to build 39 new tennis courts on protected metropolitan open land have been given the green light.
The decision was taken by the deputy mayor of London, Jules Pipe, after a three-hour hearing at City Hall where campaigners and the All-England Lawn Tennis Club clashed over the scheme’s potential economic benefits and how much it will affect the environment.
The AELTC’s plans were then given a further boost as the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, confirmed that she would not be calling in the scheme for ministerial scrutiny.
However that is not yet the end of the matter, with campaigners still able to take the AELTC’s proposals to judicial review and, potentially, the supreme court.
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Earlier the AELTC told the hearing that the development on the old Wimbledon Park golf course, which would include an 8,000-seat show court and 38 other courts for a qualifying tournament and practice facilities, was needed to ensure it did not fall behind other grand slams.
Sally Bolton, the chief executive of the AELTC, stressed that being able to stage a qualifying tournament on site, rather than at the Bank of England grounds in Roehampton three miles away, would “create an exceptional three-week event” with fans also able to watch the world’s best players practise.
However, critics of the scheme said that the AELTC had failed to demonstrate the economic benefits – especially as building on metropolitan open land is only supposed to be carried out in ”very special circumstances”.
There was also disagreement on how much damage to the environment the scheme would cost. Opponents of the scheme warned of a loss of 300 trees and said it would also have a devastating effect on biodiversity, habitats, and a number of animals in the area.
However, that was disputed by Alison King, a landscape architect who was part of the AELTC’s team. “Three-hundred out of 1,000 trees would be felled,” she said. “But the majority are lower grade category C and U trees. The numbers are misleading because they assume all trees are equal but they are not; 1,500 new trees will be planted. And the design enables the vast majority of valuable trees to remain unharmed.”
The expansion will nearly triple Wimbledon’s size from 41 to 115 acres. However, Fleur Anderson, the Labour MP for Putney and Southfields, warned that only 28% of the new area would be open to the public if the regeneration went ahead. “Local people are the losers in the deal,” she added.
Meanwhile, Paul Kohler, the Liberal Democrat MP for Wimbledon, said that the AELTC had broken a legal covenant “preventing the use of the land otherwise than for leisure or recreation purposes or as an open space”, which it agreed when it bought the land from Merton council in 1993.
“Everyone agrees this will cause substantial harm to metropolitan open land and many of the benefits are utterly illusionary,” said Kohler. “And call me old-fashioned but I believe promises should be kept.
“In 1993 the then-chairman of the AELTC, John Curry, said: ‘We completely understand and support everyone’s determination to keep the land open and we have purchased the land on that basis’. And in 2018 the AELTC also promised to deliver proposals with the local community.”
“People don’t trust public bodies,” he added. “So my message is, let’s keep our word. Let’s talk to the community.”
It is understood that questions surrounding that legal covenant in 1993 could yet form part of a future judicial review. But as things stand it looks close to being game, set and match for the AELTC.