The discussion about the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s expansion plans into Wimbledon Park Golf Club across the road are heating up in SW19. Darling asked both sides of this campaign for their views on the completion of the plans as they stand now, especially the impact on local Wimbledon Park residents and nature within this green space.
Save Wimbledon Park is campaigning to reduce the scale of the development
Anneke de Boer is part of a resolute group, Save Wimbledon Park, trying to reduce this scale of the development. She shares the group’s concerns below:
MPs Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon) and Fleur Anderson (Putney and Southfields) also object to its scale, as does the national body Campaign to Protect Rural England (“CPRE”).
The All England Lawn Tennis Club – AELTC – are proposing a massive expansion of their facilities into the Wimbledon Park Golf Club. AELTC wants to transform Capability Brown’s historic parkland beyond recognition, according to Save Wimbledon Park, with an 8000 seat, 28m high, 104m diameter stadium; 38 additional tennis courts; 5.6 miles of roads and paths; and 10 infrastructure buildings. The site would also host a 30,000 square foot maintenance depot.
This would be one of the largest development projects ever seen in SW19, defying multiple planning policy designations that protect sites like this from inappropriate development. All of this is to enhance the delivery of the annual Championships and Qualifying Tournament, which would be relocated from nearby Roehampton. All in all the Wimbledon Tennis Championships last for three weeks each year.
The AELTC’s planning application, submitted in July 2021, initially consisted of 100+ documents, with 65 more added in May 2022 and another 20+ since. However, the core of the application remains the same.
Why Save Wimbledon Park objects to the AELTC plans?
1. Planning protections – The development contravenes Local, London and National Planning Policies which heavily protect this open space, including designations as Metropolitan Open Land, a Grade II* listed Park, a Site of Nature Conservation, and, a Conservation Area.
2. Legal Covenants – when Merton sold the land to the AELTC in 1993, they insisted the AELTC sign legal covenants assuring the public that there would be no development. John Currie, All England Chairman, stated: “We completely understand and support everyone’s determination to keep the land open and we purchased the land on that basis.” Tony Colman, Merton Council Leader, said: “This council is resolute that the land will be retained as open space. We would not allow development of the site.”
3. Unacceptable environmental impact – the entire golf course will be excavated, infilled and levelled over 8 years, threatening protected priority habitats. Claims for biodiversity net gains have been challenged in expert analysis. Desilting the lake would cause serious pollution. 300 mature trees will be felled. Established trees are vastly superior to new saplings for carbon storage, heritage and biodiversity. A 150-year-old tree takes 150 years to replace.
4. Excessive density – the density of courts and infrastructure across the site is excessive for just three weeks’ use. Championships’ parking and the Queue will still be on public park land.
5. Church Road – a main thoroughfare for locals and a bus route to St George’s Hospital, will be closed for three weeks annually during the tournament, including to pedestrians and cyclists.
The AELTC propose a new “public” park. However, this park will be “permissive” and the AELTC’s permission can be withdrawn at any time. This park also contains the main maintenance depot and the roads and paths needed for servicing the courts.
Public access to the new courts will be negligible with access only to “up to seven courts” for up to two months of the year. Access will be primarily for existing initiatives, including the Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative and the junior community programme, with members of the public only invited for Community Tennis Experience days.
The AELTC also propose a boardwalk on the lake. They already have an obligation from 1993 to create a public walkway “around” the lake on their land. Their boardwalk route runs across, not around, the lake and stands on existing Public land. It will only have “permissive” not public access. This is an infringement and unacceptable on visual, ecological and historical grounds.
The AELTC claim to have “consulted” and “engaged” with the community, however these meetings were mostly briefings not genuine dialogue; their plans haven’t changed.
We are not anti-tennis nor are we anti-AELTC and the Championships. We are against an industrial tennis complex on protected green space contravening legal covenants. This massive development is unjustified and wrong. The AELTC must think again.
You can find more information at
https://www.savewimbledonpark.org/
https://www.change.org/savewimbledonpark
The view from inside: All England Lawn Tennis Club’s expansion plan into Wimbledon Park
AELTC Wimbledon Park proposal
The AELTC Wimbledon Park Project will secure the future of The Championships and we believe it will also create significant year-round benefits for the local community.
Having carried out extensive analysis, the Club was able to develop proposals that meet the future needs of the event as well as provide a brand new 23-acre park for London. This will give access to the previously private golf course located on the site for the first time in over 100 years.
The park will be open during the same times as Wimbledon Park and will only be closed to public use for a short period around the Qualifying event and The Championships. Even during the closure period we will still maintain a route through the public park for the public to use. It will also be open to the public to use throughout the remainder of the year.
The new park will not only be a valuable asset to the community but will significantly increase the biodiversity of the site by restoring important habitats and represents the best chance of resolving its ‘at risk’ status, as identified by Historic England.
As well as Historic England, there are a number of other organisations who are supportive of our proposals including, the London Wildlife Trust, The Gardens Trust, The Environment Agency, LTA and Sport England.
“…I am pleased to say that London Wildlife Trust fully supports the biodiversity and nature improvements contained within the AELTC’s plans. We are particularly impressed to see plans for the daylighting of the two brooks and enhancement of the lake habitat for wildlife. These plans will showcase how habitat improvements can be integrated into a scheme’s primary purpose and deliver net gains for nature”
Gordon Scorer, CEO London Wildlife Trust
The park will feature outdoor learning trails, workshops, and a community hub as well as a new level access boardwalk around Wimbledon Park Lake with the AELTC pledging to fund the cost of essential desilting works to protect the lake for the enjoyment of water sports enthusiasts for generations to come.
The All England Lawn Tennis Club expansion means 38 additional courts
These proposals will enable the All England Club to build an additional 38 grass courts, including a new Parkland Show Court, allowing us to bring the Qualifying event on-site for the first time to improve it to be worthy of Wimbledon’s world-class player field and keep pace with the other Grand Slams. These are all measures to ensure that Wimbledon remains the world’s premier tennis tournament, with all the associated substantial social and economic benefits that the event brings, locally and nationally.
Amongst the many health and societal benefits of bringing a new public park to the area, there will be a net gain of 1,500 new trees and will offer the use of the newly built grass courts for use by Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative (WJTI) participants and the existing AELTC junior community tennis programme from the end of The Championships until the end of the grass-court season. Furthermore, the Club will host community tennis experiences so that local residents can enjoy the grass courts free of charge and look to provide space in the new Parkland Show Court facilities that can be used by the local community year-round outside The Championships period.
The All England Club is already one of the largest employers in the area, with the proposals estimated to generate an additional £54.8 million to the UK economy, an increase of 14%, and will add c.256 additional jobs required to host The Championships on top of the existing c.6,400.
The Championships is one of the primary vehicles for investment in British tennis. Each year 90% of the money generated by The Championships is given to the LTA, the National Governing Body for Tennis, to reinvest into grassroots and elite programmes to grow and develop the sport across the nation. This year this investment given to the LTA was over £42m, the second highest amount ever.
Public consultations of the plans
Since the application was submitted, the Club has held an array of public exhibition events, offered tours of the private golf course (which sits on the land currently), and hosted a series of ‘Meet the Experts’ sessions to enable our community to gain further insight into key aspects of the scheme as well as providing certainty about the care and attention paid to the preservation, restoration, and enhancement of the land. We were delighted that over 4,000 people have attended a consultation session or visit the site to see our proposals for themselves.
Within this beautiful and historic landscape, the AELTC Wimbledon Park Project will unlock some truly significant benefits for the local community and the natural environment alike. We look forward to continuing our positive dialogue with council officers, elected representatives and local communities as the planning committee process progresses.
You can read more about the proposals at www.wimbledon.com/wpp
Have you read our exclusive interview with Chris Evert, three times Wimbledon Champion?
