Public Meeting Over Wimbledon Tennis Expansion Plans
Chance to debate controversial scheme before planning permission decision
CGI of the Parklands Show Court, part of the All England Tennis Club plan. Picture: AELTC
A public meeting is being held on Wednesday to discuss the controversial plan by the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) to build 39 new tennis courts on Wimbledon Park.
More than 1,200 people have objected to the planning application, which also includes an 8,000 capacity show court and would span 67 hectares between Wimbledon and Wandsworth.
The club's ambitious scheme, which is detailed in 101 documents lodged as part of the planning application, has been criticised as the overdevelopment of 'heritage open space' and the surviving views around it, as well as the current open grassland.
It involves the felling of 296 trees which are subject to Tree Preservation Orders, as well as work taking many years to level and concrete over part of the landscape to produce the proposed buildings, roads, paths and areas of hard-standing.
If the AELTC receives permission to carry out the work, it will enable the qualifying event for the annual tennis championships to take place on the site, rather than in Roehampton. The scheme will see 'Wimbledon fortnight' expanded to three weeks, meaning increased crowds in Wimbledon for a longer period of time as well as road closures for up to four weeks.
The first public opportunity to discuss the scheme, prior to Merton and Wandsworth councils making their decision in the spring, will take place in the Lake Room at the Wimbledon Club in Church Road at 7.30pm on Wednesday (January 19).
Access to the meeting, which has been partly organised by Wimbledon's Conservative MP Stephen Hammond, is only made available by registering in advance.
The invitatation states: "We all want to see the Wimbledon Championships thrive as a major international sports tournament. But we believe the application could have been more sensitive to the needs of local residents. We know people feel strongly about this on both sides of the debate."
Local Liberal Democrats are among those claiming that a restrictive covenant – a clause in a contract – could prevent the halt the building on the Grade II* listed parkland even if planning permission was granted.
Bird's eye view of how the Wimbledon Tennis Club could look by 2028. Picture: AELTC
The AELTC bought the leasehold of Wimbledon Park Golf Course back in 2018, it already owned the freehold.
There are currently a total of 40 tennis courts on site and the grand slam tournament held there each year attracts 500,000 visitors.
If the plans are given the go-ahead, the daily capacity of the event could increase from 42,000 to 50,000 a day, with the AELTC hoping the development would be ready for the 2028 tournament.
The plans include creating a route around the Capability Brown-designed Wimbledon Park Lake and creating an area of deeper water for sports. It would also create a pedestrian link between Wimbledon Park station to Wimbledon Village.
The Friends of Wimbledon Park, who are among the many local and national organisations to have already objected to the scheme, have recently detailed their objections to the proposed desilting of the park's lake.
In a submission made on Thursday (January 13) it said the lake's desilting proposal required a separate application for planning permission and should be refused.
While it said the lake was shallow and slowly losing depth, desilting will cause significant short-term harm to wildlife and lakeside habitats, the group claimed. It will also require the arrival of 330 HGV lorries a month for two years.
Dr Nick Steiner, Chair of the Friends of Wimbledon Park, said: "Desilting would take us back to the original Brown design and so buy us another 300 years or more of open water in the lake. However, silt traps must be installed where the tributary brooks enter the heritage landscape to
reduce further siltation of the lake.
"During the 250+ years there are one or two anecdotal reports of desilting but no proper records. This indicates silt removal from the lake is not urgent, as we would have a century or more before a much slower rate of accumulation became a problem and may not even be necessary particularly if future sediment entering the lake were to be controlled by silt traps.
"Given the scale of the engineering works to do this desilting should not be a planning condition and must be submitted in full detail as part a full application with proper explanation stating how much is to be removed, how and where to. This is a significant engineering operation with biodiversity consequences that have not been adequately addressed in the application."
A Twitter account set up by Wimbledon and Southfields Residents' Associations, called @YouCannotBeSeriousSW19 has recently highlighted the threat local wildlife by the scheme.
They tweeted today: "This Grade II* listed Metropolitan Open Land is is home to 80 bird species, eight bat species, badgers, fungi, lichens, stag beetles & hedgehogs + others. All threatened by excavation, building and light pollution".
Earlier this week it claimed "AELTC’s proposed industrial tennis complex requires felling 296 trees c.30% of the current tree population which includes over 50 species inc ash, elm, oak and willow. Eighteen trees (inc 11 Oak) require transplanting with a likely mortality rate of 50%."
Wimbledon Park Golf Club
January 16, 2022