Wimbledon Tennis Plans Given Go Ahead at City Hall
Hearing approves scheme and Angela Rayner confirms decision
Opponents of the plan demonstrate outside the hearing. Picture: Save Wimbledon Park
September 27, 2024
Hopes of blocking the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s (AELTC) plans for a massive expansion of tennis provision appear to have been dashed.
The Deputy Mayor of London, Jules Pipe announced his decision to approve the scheme at the end of a three-hour hearing at City Hall this Friday (27 September). At the same time, it was confirmed that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner would not be exercising her power to call in the scheme for further scrutiny.
Mr Pipe was following the recommendation of the Greater London’s Assembly’s planning officers who had concluded that the economic and community benefits of the scheme outweighed the harms it would cause including building on Metropolitan Open Lane on the former Wimbledon Park golf course.
In the 221-page report, planning officers at City Hall had told Mr Pipe there were “no material considerations that are considered to justify the refusal of consent”, and they recommended he approve the plan.
The report also said the project would benefit the UK economy by around £336m per year and create 40 year-round jobs and 256 jobs during the Championships.
Before the meeting the Save Wimbledon Park campaign emailed the Deputy Mayor saying, "On behalf of the Save Wimbledon Park group, we formally request that the AELTC planning application is rejected. We consider that the applicant has roundly failed to demonstrate the need for the development and there are numerous reasons for refusing the application which we have set-out in the many submissions made to the Borough Councils and yourselves.
"The key reasons to reject the application are the failure to prove the Very Special Circumstances required for the proposals and the failure to take account of the Public Trust status of the Metropolitan Open Land which is incompatible with the delivery of the proposals."
AELTC has said the project will “deliver one of the greatest sporting transformations for London since 2012” and will “create 27 acres of beautiful new parkland, free for the public to access and enjoy”.
The hearing in progress at City Hall
The planning application reached City Hall after dividing opinion between the two local councils whose border is straddled by the site of the former Wimbledon Park Golf Club on Church Road. Merton Council had approved permission for the scheme in October last year, but Wandsworth Council refused to do the same in November.
The hearing was told that the loss of three hundred mature trees on the site could have a devastating impact on local biodiversity. This was disputed by a landscape architecture who claimed that this was less than a third of the trees on the site and most of those being removed had a low environmental benefit with the more valuable trees being left in place.
There were significant numbers of campaigners from the Save Wimbledon Park group outside City Hall ahead of the hearing holding up placards against the plan.
An aerial view facing south of the proposed facilities. Picture: AELTC
The only option now for opponents of the plan to build 38 tennis courts designed to host the qualifying stages of the Wimbledon Open Championships and a 8,000 seat show court, would be to request a Judicial Review followed by a potential appeal to the Supreme Court which could be expensive and provide no guarantee of success.
“Local people are the losers in this deal,” said Labour MP Ms Anderson, adding that there was “no guarantee” that AELTC would not in the future look to build on the new area of parkland which it is proposes to make publicly accessible most of the year.
The MP suggested that AELTC instead explore improving its existing set of qualifying courts at Roehampton, which she said would be “really welcomed” there
Paul Kohler, the MP for Wimbledon, said the land, which was purchased from Merton Council in 1993 was protected by a legal covenant. Campaigners against the scheme still believe that the wording of this convenient provides a basis for a legal challenge..
Leonie Cooper, London Assembly member for Merton and Wandsworth, said: “It is a prestigious tournament. I don’t think if the proposal fails to go ahead that the prestige is going to vanish… and I don’t think putting this very large structure into a Capability Brown heritage landscape is something we should support.”
But local resident Richard Higgs, whose home directly overlooks the golf course that would be built on, pointed out that the land has for the last century only been accessible to its members.
“You weren’t just allowed to rock up and play with Ant and Dec, and Piers Morgan,” he said, naming some of the former golf club’s members. The scheme, he argued, would at least open some of it up to the public, as well as enabling circular access round the park’s lake thanks to a proposed boardwalk.
AELTC chair Debbie Jevans warned the deputy mayor that if the project did not go ahead, “Wimbledon will fall behind all the other Grand Slam events”.
Wimbledon is one of four such events in the world – the others being the Australian Open, the French Open, and the US Open.
“We are the only Slam that doesn’t host our qualifying event on the same site as the main tournament,” Ms Jevans said. “Qualifying for Wimbledon currently takes place in Roehampton on a time-limited and rented site.
“We know that this holds us back in offering a truly world-class experience. We have a real need for a third show court, which mirrors that of the other Grand Slams, and includes a roof to mitigate against the evermore disruptive weather.”
Written with contributions from Noah Vickers - Local Democracy Reporter
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