Wimbledon expansion given planning boost
The All England Club looks set to win planning approval to build 39 new grass courts on the former Wimbledon Park Golf Club site, after officials at the Greater London Authority backed the scheme.
The verdict is not yet definite, as this was only a recommendation, and the deputy mayor Jules Pipe still needs to green-light the proposal at a public hearing on Friday 27 September.
But it would be a major surprise now if permission were to be denied, after a 221-page report said it had found “no material considerations that are considered to justify the refusal of consent”.
The report also estimated that the development – which also involves the creation of an 8,000-seat stadium just across Church Road from the existing Wimbledon site – would deliver £336 million of annual benefits and create 40 new jobs.
The All England Club has invested a great deal of time and money in these proposals, having originally spent £65 million on buying out the Wimbledon Park Golf Club members in 2018.
The Club hoped to earn planning permission three years later, but seriously underestimated the amount of ill-feeling that the project would create among local residents.
MP: ‘Plans damaging for the environment’
Both the MPs whose constituencies surround the grounds of the AELTC – Stephen Hammond of Wimbledon and Fleur Anderson of Putney – have previously criticised the proposals and said that they disrespect the protected status of Wimbledon Park.
On Thursday, Anderson declared herself “extremely disappointed” by the GLA’s report, adding that “These plans are not right for our community and are damaging for the environment, with industrial scale development and permanent loss of access to our park”
Jonathan Morrish, a leading local campaigner, also said that “The general direction of the report is not what we wanted and the admission of loss of open space and harm to protected MOL [Metropolitan open land] is deeply distressing to local residents whose views haven’t been taken into consideration. We will be out in force at the GLA meeting on Friday 27th.”
The objectors’ best chance of another stay of execution at this late stage would seem to involve another referral upwards, to the desk of Angela Rayner, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
According to planning rules, Rayner’s office will have seven days to consider Pipe’s ruling, after it is handed down next Friday, and to decide whether or not to call the proposals in for further consideration.
The All England Club have long argued that they need to expand their facilities, and to improve the whole experience of the qualifying competition that runs in the week before Wimbledon proper.
At present, 128 players of each gender go to Roehampton, where they fight out three rounds of eliminators in search of a place in the main draw – and thus an upgrade to the grounds of the All England Club.
Once the development has been completed, there will be no need for this two-tier system, or for Roehampton to be involved, as the AELTC will have enough courts to stage three weeks of tennis on-site without wearing out the grass.
‘A great sporting transformation’
The complexity of the proposed development is such that, even if Pipe gives the green light next week, the new courts are unlikely to be ready for seven or eight years. Still, the promise of an expanded site is important to Wimbledon’s future, especially at a time when the other three grand-slam events are all upgrading their own facilities with each passing year.
Unsurprisingly, the GLA report received a warm response from Debbie Jevans, the AELTC chair. “We believe that these plans will deliver one of the greatest sporting transformations for London since 2012,” Jevans said.
“The land that we propose to enhance has been used as a private members’ golf course for well over 100 years and, as a core part of this project, we will create 27 acres of beautiful new parkland, free for the public to access and enjoy.”
