Campaigners opposed to the Wimbledon tennis expansion plan have vowed to fight on following their defeat at City Hall, and are considering legal action to stop the scheme.
The project, which secured planning permission last week, will see the construction of 39 new courts - including an 8,000-seater stadium - on a golf course across the road from the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club’s (AELTC) existing site.
AELTC said the decision - made at a public hearing by Sadiq Khan’s deputy mayor for planning, Jules Pipe - will keep Wimbledon “at the pinnacle of world sport”, while delivering “newly accessible parkland for the community” and creating “substantial economic and employment opportunities”.
But members of the Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) campaign, who have led the charge against the project, say they are taking “professional advice” as to how best to challenge its legality. Both of the area’s local MPs have told the Standard they would support such a challenge.
In a statement on Monday, SWP said: “We have never been anti tennis, or the Championships, but we remain firm in our belief that it is wrong to allow AELTC to proceed with this aggressive and environmentally damaging development.
“We draw breath to consider our next steps carefully and with the benefit of professional advice. The fight goes on.”
Permission for the scheme was granted despite Mr Pipe admitting that the project “constitutes inappropriate development” on Metropolitan Open Land, which is meant to enjoy the same level of protection from building as the Green Belt.
He concluded however that the project’s benefits outweighed the harm, as it would help to “secure the future of these Championships in this location” and would bring “significant associated economic benefits”, among other reasons.
In a hint that his decision may not be the end of the planning saga, the deputy mayor also said: “Whether or not the land is held subject to a statutory trust, and the ramifications that follow, are matters for the courts.”
The question of whether the golf course is subject to a trust could prove important, because the Supreme Court last year overturned planning permission for a housing development in Shropshire on the grounds that a statutory trust created in 1926 gave residents rights of recreation over the land. SWP could attempt a similar appeal to stop the Wimbledon expansion in its tracks.
Another potential avenue for the campaign would be to call for a judicial review, focusing on the covenants that AELTC agreed when it bought the golf course land from Merton Council in 1993. According to a report by City Hall planning officers, the covenants “require the owner to use the golf course land only for leisure and recreation or as an open space”, and include certain restrictions around the erection of buildings.
Fleur Anderson, Labour MP for Putney - whose constituency includes the northern part of the golf course - said she would be willing to “support anything that would stop this development”.
She said: “We’re a big local campaign and quite a few of them are lawyers, so they will be looking at the small print of that verdict, because there are potentially ways in which this can be challenged.”
Paul Kohler, Liberal Democrat MP for Wimbledon, similarly said he will “support all lawful means available to prevent this gross over-development of Metropolitan Open Land and force AELTC and Merton Council to keep the solemn promises they made to the community in 1993, and repeated as recently as 2018, when AELTC bought out the golf club lease”.
Mr Kohler also said he was “dismayed” at Mr Pipe’s “willingness to take at face value claims by AELTC to have consulted widely with the local community, when all they have done is to lobby residents via a PR campaign whilst repeatedly refusing to attend public meetings or enter into meaningful discussions with elected representatives seeking compromise”.
AELTC chair Debbie Jevans said on Friday that she and her colleagues were “delighted” by the deputy mayor’s verdict.
“Our proposals will deliver 27 acres of newly accessible parkland for the community and enable us to bring the qualifying competition for the Championships on-site, with all of the substantial economic and employment opportunities this presents,” she said.
“Every stage of this project will be delivered with a meticulous attention to detail and the utmost respect for both our neighbours and the environment.
“We look forward to working with all parties to bring this vision to life, delivering one of London’s greatest sporting transformations since the 2012 Games, and securing Wimbledon’s future at the pinnacle of world sport.”
