Save Wimbledon Park Campaign Starts Legal Action

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Challenging City Hall's approval of the massive AELTC project

Opponents of the plan demonstrate outside the original hearing at City Hall. Picture: Save Wimbledon Park

January 6, 2025

A row over plans to massively expand the site of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships has ramped up after local campaigners revealed they are taking legal action against City Hall for approving the project.

The Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) campaign said it had taken the “momentous step” in order to prevent the “inappropriate development”, which will comprise 38 new practice courts and an 8,000-seater stadium.

The structures will be built on a former golf course directly opposite the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s (AELTC) existing site on Church Road, and will almost triple its total footprint.

Planning permission for the scheme was granted by London’s deputy mayor for planning, Jules Pipe, at a City Hall hearing in September last year. Mr Pipe said the project would help to “secure the future of these Championships in this location” and would bring “significant associated economic benefits”.

But opponents of the plan continue to argue that it will cause serious harm to the area’s biodiversity and heritage, and could set a dangerous precedent for development on sites which are meant to enjoy a high level of protection due to their designation as ‘metropolitan open land’.

SWP claims that City Hall “made errors of law and planning policy” when it granted permission for the project, as it “failed to take into account the implications of the statutory public recreation trust and the restrictive covenants [on the land], both of which prevent the proposed development”.

Two further grounds for challenge, relating to the land’s status as a “historic heritage asset” and as a site for “recreational provision”, have also been put forward.

Jeremy Hudson, an SWP campaigner, said, “We have taken this momentous step because our directors, members and the community feel strongly that this precious, historic and highly protected environment should be preserved from inappropriate development, be allowed to remain accessible, and continue to be available for community use for sport and recreation.

“We must get AELTC to think again. This step is not just for our local community but also important for many other Metropolitan Open Land spaces under threat of development.”

The campaign hopes to follow an example set in Shropshire last year, where a housing development was overturned on the grounds that a statutory trust created in 1926 gave residents rights of recreation over the land.

Before taking a decision on the application earlier this year, City Hall sought its own legal advice on the issue, which found that “the land is held subject to a statutory trust for its use for public recreation”. City Hall’s officers warned however that “the matter is far from clear cut, and there are arguments pointing in both directions”.

Shortly before Christmas, AELTC made the surprise announcement that it would take the ‘statutory trust’ question to the High Court itself, in an attempt to prove that no such issue stands in the scheme’s way.

CGI of the aerial view of the completed scheme. Picture: AELTC

Responding to the news that SWP has launched its own legal action against the Greater London Authority (GLA), a spokesman for mayor Sadiq Khan said: “The mayor believes this scheme will bring a significant range of benefits including economic, social and cultural benefits to the local area, the wider capital and the UK economy, creating new jobs and cementing Wimbledon’s reputation as the greatest tennis competition in the world.

“It is understood that an application has been made for the court to determine this matter and it is therefore inappropriate for the mayor to comment further at this stage.”

AELTC has been named as an “interested party” in SWP’s challenge, as have Merton and Wandsworth councils – each of which considered the planning application before it reached City Hall.

AELTC declined to comment on the SWP’s legal challenge, but said in December: “The possibility of a statutory trust on the land was raised by the GLA in their officers’ report and the issue was dealt with appropriately by the GLA in granting planning consent.

“Our position, and that adopted by Merton Council on advice, was and remains that there is not, nor has there ever been, a statutory trust affecting the former Wimbledon Park Golf Course land.”

It added that the project “will maintain our position at the pinnacle of tennis” while delivering “year-round benefits for local people with 27 acres of newly accessible parkland for everyone to enjoy”.

It is understood that a judge will now review all of the papers that have been filed by SWP and the other named parties, and will then decide whether or not to grant permission for a judicial review to take place. SWP estimates that a decision on whether to take the case forward could be reached within two or three months, and a full trial could then take place in approximately 12-18 months from now.

The golf club land was sold to AELTC by Merton Council in 1993, during which time the authority imposed a set of restrictive covenants to preserve the openness of the land. Approached for comment on SWP’s legal challenge, which refers to those covenants, Merton pointed to a statement it issued when City Hall granted planning permission in September.

The council said at that time that “the granting of planning permission does not override the covenants” and it “intends that the covenants be respected”, while refusing to say anything further on the matter at this stage.

Wandsworth Council leader Simon Hogg said: “We share the view of local residents that the plans are damaging to the environment and are therefore not right for our community. Protecting the environment and access to green spaces are issues we are committed to. We will continue to liaise with residents and campaigners to ensure that the voices of those in Wandsworth are heard.”

CGI of the completed scheme. Picture: AELTC

In November, the campaign against the project, Save Wimbledon Park, announced that it had secured the status of a limited company, in order “to progress any future legal action that may be advised”.

The new company said it had already instructed the Putney-based firm of solicitors Russell-Cooke to advise on its legal strategy for challenging AELTC.

A spokesman for Save Wimbledon Park Ltd said, “We have been pointing out for a considerable time that the statutory public recreation trust on which AELTC hold the heritage golf course land is a fundamental block on the proposed development, and that AELTC need to think again.

“We are glad to hear that AELTC now recognise our point of view and note that they wish to take this to litigation rather than engage in any discussion.”

Noah Vickers - Local Democracy Reporter