The London mayor’s office now has control over the choice to authorize the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s contentious proposal to develop on a Grade II*-listed park in order to expand the Wimbledon grand slam tournaments.
A representative for city hall stated on Monday that this is a significant planning application for all of London. As a result, the deputy mayor has utilized article 7 of the Town and Country Planning (Mayor of London) Order to take on the role of the local planning authority in order to make a decision on the application. A complete planning hearing will be scheduled at a later time.
The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), which has organized the championships since 1877, has requested approval to construct a 10-storey show court with a capacity of 8,000 and 38 additional grass courts in Wimbledon Park. However, activists have criticized this plan as an excessive and commercialized tennis facility.
The Merton council approved the plans to expand the tennis championship grounds from 17 hectares (42 acres) to 46 hectares, but the neighboring Wandsworth council rejected them.
The plans for Wimbledon Park, designed by Capability Brown and designated as “metropolitan open land” in the 18th century, required approval from both councils as it extends into two boroughs.
Merton brought the decision to the attention of the Greater London Authority (GLA). Officially, the decision falls under the jurisdiction of the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. However, he abstained from being involved due to his previous public endorsement of the expansion in 2021.
Jules Pipe, the deputy mayor of London, decided to assume responsibility for the application during the mayor’s planning meeting on Monday.
Over 16,000 individuals have endorsed a petition in an effort to protect Wimbledon Park, while the councils have received 2,000 letters of disapproval. Both the Conservative MP, Stephen Hammond, and the Labour MP, Fleur Anderson, have united to resist the AELTC’s proposals.
Anderson, the MP for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields and Wandsworth Town, said: “I have been campaigning against these proposals, alongside residents, for three years. The plans as they currently stand are bad for public access to green space, Londoners’ lungs and our environment.
“The GLA is a world-leading local authority when it comes to putting Londoners’ health and our environment first. I hope that they will tell Wimbledon Tennis they need to go back to the drawing board.”
Deborah Jevans, the chair of the AELTC, welcomed city hall’s decision to review the application. “Our proposals will deliver one of the greatest sporting transformations for London since the 2012 Olympics,” she said. “It will bring the qualifying event on site, in line with the other grand slams, and will ensure that Wimbledon remains one of the world’s best sporting events.”
According to Jevans, the club’s proposals will open up year-round opportunities for the community, including the development of a new 23-acre park on previously inaccessible land that has been off-limits to the public for more than a century.
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“By safeguarding the future of the tournaments and significantly expanding accessible green areas, London is poised to solidify its standing as the global leader in sports.”
Iain Simpson, the chair of the Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) campaign group, also welcomed the announcement. He said: “It is notable that all political parties have declared their opposition to the AELTC’s plans. SWP have been fighting this application since it was made three years ago. We have been urging the AELTC to speak to us, their local communities: it is time for them to think again.”
The AELTC’s proposed construction plans would result in the removal of nearly 300 trees, causing some residents to label it as “corporate ecocide.” However, the club claims that the majority of these trees are of low quality and has committed to planting 1,500 new trees as compensation.
In 1993, the AELTC purchased the freehold of Wimbledon Park for £5.2m from Merton council with the intention of expanding. However, they agreed to a covenant stating that the land could only be used for leisure, recreational activities, or as open space.
The club leased the property to the Wimbledon Park golf club until 2018. The chair expressed concern that the SW19 championships would be left behind by its counterparts in New York, Paris, and Melbourne if it did not expand and improve its amenities for both players and spectators. The logical solution, according to the chair, was to expand onto the golf club’s premises.
The lease of the golf club for the land was valid until 2041, meaning that the AELTC could not reclaim the land for another 23 years. To resolve this, the tennis club offered the golf club members a sum of £65m to relinquish their club early. This resulted in each member, including Piers Morgan, Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, and Gus O’Donnell, the former cabinet secretary, receiving a windfall of £85,000.
Source: theguardian.com
