All England Club granted planning permission for a huge tennis expansion at Wimbledon

CITY HALL, LONDON The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) has been granted planning permission to add 39 new courts and triple the size of the Wimbledon Championships.

At a public hearing on Friday afternoon, Deputy Mayor of London Jules Pipe agreed with the recommendation of General London Assembly (GLA) officials, who in a 221-page report last week found no material considerations deemed to support the refusal to justify consent. .

As Pipe read out the verdict, there were boos and shouts of shame from campaigners present at the hearing who said they would continue to fight against Friday's decision. The opponents positioned themselves outside City Hall on Friday morning and held signs outside the building with slogans such as: Green, no greed! About 80 of the almost 140 in the public gallery were said to be people who opposed the plans.

Opponents including Wimbledon MP Paul Kohler (a Liberal Democrat) and Fleur Anderson (Labour MP for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields) can bring two more legal challenges: a judicial review at the High Court, and then an appeal to the High Court. Labor Deputy Leader Angela Rayner, who is also Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, had the power to overrule Pipe, but she wrote to the Wimbledon Society before the ruling confirming that she had rejected the decision. deputy mayor would accept. London Mayor Sadiq Khan apologized for the trial three years ago after previously expressing his support for the proposals.

Speaking at the hearing, Anderson said approving the AELTC plans would set a dangerous London and national precedent for green belt development. Although the AELTC has owned the Wimbledon Park property, including the golf course, since 1993, its purchase of the land from Merton Council included a covenant that it would not develop the land other than for leisure or recreational purposes or as open space. Residents groups, including the Wimbledon Society, believe the proposals breach that covenant. In 2018, the AELTC also bought the Wimbledon Park golf club, whose lease expired in 2041, for 65 million (now $87.1 million). This led to each member receiving 85,000.

Anderson added that only 28 percent of the new area would actually be open to the public if the plans went ahead. Local people are the losers of the deal, she told reporters.

Pipes' decision is the most significant moment yet in what has been a difficult battle between the AELTC and local groups. The AELTC believes the plans will ensure Wimbledon does not fall behind the Australian, French and US Opens in prestige. One of the 39 new courts will be an 8,000-seat stadium, and the other 38 will allow the AELTC to host the qualifying event on site. That event is held the week before the main draw starts, and Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam of the four that does not yet have an on-site qualifying event. Wimbledon's current third show court, No. 2 Court, is the smallest of the majors' third courts.

Objectors said Wimbledon's prestige is enough that it doesn't need new infrastructure to keep up.

The GLA report also presented the economic benefits of the plans, saying they would result in the creation of 40 year-round jobs and 256 championship jobs. At Friday's hearing, AELTC chairman Deborah Jevans said the championships would contribute €336 million to the UK economy each year under the expansion, and €326 million to London's economy. It is already London's most valuable sporting event, set to add €200 million to the city's economy by 2023, according to research from Sheffield Hallam University reported in the Evening standard.

Jevans and AELTC chief executive Sally Bolton told reporters afterwards that early 2030 is the rough target for when the courts will be ready for action at Wimbledon.

The main arguments at the hearing were environmental and social, with net tree loss and major impacts on biodiversity cited as some of the biggest damage the development would cause. AELTC experts in the field who were present on Friday rejected this characterization, pointing to the proposed planting of five times more trees than will be removed if the plans are approved. They also said the area would perform better ecologically thanks to projects such as planting wet forests.

A recurring theme from opponents was a perceived lack of compromise and a feeling that local residents had not been consulted, more so than the outright rejection of the idea of ​​expansion.

However, this is not a universal position, and Shan Warnock-Smith KC, a local resident who supports the development, praised the AELTC for its extensive consultation with the community. David Mooney, CEO of the London Wildlife Trust, spoke about the ecological improvement of the plans and said the golf club is quite dead ecologically. It was later pointed out that the Trust was relying on AELTC data which had not been independently confirmed.

Sim Comfort, a local resident, said The Wimbledon Park Heritage Group had changed its mind and supported the AELTC's plans.

The town hall decision does not mean the end of the appeals, but it is a decisive step in the AELTC's plans for the future of Wimbledon.

(Top photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)