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<\/p>\nAn artist\u2019s impression of the proposed new show court in Wimbledon Park<\/p>\n
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The All England Lawn Tennis Club has taken a major step towards building a new 8,000-seater show court and 38 further courts on Wimbledon Park after the controversial plans were approved by Merton Council following a mammoth five-hour meeting.<\/p>\n
The development will take place on the land of Wimbledon Park Golf Club, located opposite the tennis club on the other side of Church Road, with plans for a range of amenities for fans, players and staff as well as the new courts.<\/p>\n
The AELTC bought the golf course for \u00a365m in 2018, but struggled to secure the required legal and procedural permissions to build. The club plan to play Championship qualifying matches on the grounds, rather than outsourcing those matches to Roehampton where they are currently played.<\/p>\n
Local residents and park users had battled passionately against the proposal, with an online petition called \u201cSave Wimbledon Park\u201d garnering 13,000 signatures. Concerns were raised over the environmental impact of the development and the loss of green space. <\/p>\n
Around 2,000 trees are expected to be removed across some 75 acres of Metropolitan Open Land, which is intended to be protected as an area of landscape, recreation, nature conservation or scientific interest. Protestors chanted \u201ctrees not tennis!\u201d outside Merton\u2019s Civic Centre, where the decision was being made late on Thursday night and into the early hours of Friday morning. <\/p>\n
However, the approval was expected after a 524-page document published earlier this month recommended that planning permission should be granted because the public benefits outweighed harm to heritage assets.<\/p>\n
The AELTC has insisted the space will be available for local people to enjoy, saying: \u201cThe new 23-acre public park will be completely free for the local community to enjoy and will be accessible year-round except for the period during Qualifying and The Championships. This will open up a beautiful new parkland on what was previously a private golf course and which has been inaccessible to the public for well over 100 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
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A map used by protestors to highlight their concerns over the proposal<\/p>\n
But Fleur Anderson, the MP for Putney, Southfields and Roehampton, had said on Thursday on the BBC\u2019s Politics London show: \u201cThere\u2019s no protection that in five years\u2019 time, the Wimbledon club will not come back and say \u2018we\u2019re going to build hotels on that land\u2019 or anything they want on that land. There\u2019s a climate emergency, people want to save our local parks\u2026 it\u2019s about saving our green spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Merton borough earns a significant portion of its revenues from hosting the Wimbledon Championships each year. <\/p>\n
In outlining its plans, the All England Club said: \u201cThe AELTC seeks continually to ensure that the Championships, proudly a local and national asset, remains a world-leading sporting event.<\/p>\n
\u201cBringing the qualifying event on site in order to improve it to be worthy of our world-class player field, enhancing practice and junior event facilities and providing a third \u2018show court\u2019 are all measures aimed at ensuring Wimbledon remains the world\u2019s premier tennis tournament, with all the associated substantial social and economic benefits that the event brings, locally and nationally.\u201d<\/p>\n
The AELTC will also need approval from Wandsworth Council, whose boundary cuts through the northern portion of the site, and there is expected to be a vote next month. The plans could also be referred to the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, given the level of contention, and may eventually require the sign off of the housing minister Michael Gove.<\/p>\n
The plans were originally submitted in 2021 and, if given the final go-ahead, Wimbledon anticipates that the new courts will be ready for use in 2030.<\/p>\n