Golf club to tennis courts: Wimbledon’s controversial expansion wins approval
A controversial plan to substantially enlage a public park in southwest London by taking land from a golf club has been approved by two councils and a Deputy Mayor for London.
The reason you might not have immediately recognised the news is that it’s the golf club next to the Wimbledon tennis courts, and the remainder of the golf club will be turned into a large expansion of the tennis courts.
The aim is to avoid the need to use tennis courts in other locations for some of the early qualifying rounds and offer more flexibility in the main championships. However, the plans have been exceptionally controversial locally, and the planning application had to go to City Hall for a public inquiry before getting the final approval to go ahead.
The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) will also need to spend around £10 million on upgrades to the existing park, improvements to the main road that will run between the two tennis sites, and expand the the existing site biodiversity by at least 10 percent.
While there’s a valid argument that the development of the golf course deprives the users of a golf club and that development will see the lawns replaced with tennis courts — it’s equally valid to note that a golf club is hardly a hotbed of biodiversity and that the tennis courts will also be covered in lawns.
There will be 39 additional tennis courts on the old golf club, most of them small courts for qualifying and practice matches and one additional large court with a retractable roof for the major matches. The switch from using a site in Rohamption would allow some 10,000 people per day to watch the earlier matches instead of the around 2,000 who can currently do so.
The additional crowds coming to the tennis courts, which are a fair walk from the nearest tube stations, and the construction work were the main reasons for local objections.
However, the 221 page report commissioned by the GLA found that the scheme’s public benefits clearly outweighed the harm identified, allowing planning permission to be granted.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, recused himself from involvement in this planning application last October so that it would be handled by the public inquiry and decided by the Deputy Mayor. The Secretary of State could in principle call in the application at any point until the final decision notice is issued to the AELTC (which could be a number of weeks). However, she stated in a letter today that she is content for the GLA to determine the application.
There is the option for a judicial review, but that would prove challenging to secure, considering the lengthy planning process the proposal has already gone through.
There is always the option for seeking a JR but they are very hard to win.
Applicants have to show there was a major error in the planning process and those errors made the final determination so egregiously wrong so as to be pervese baded on the evidence.
And even if they win the faulty process can just be repeated so as to cure the error.
Will members of the public be allowed/permtted to walk all the way around the lake, I wonder?
If the answer to that is “yes” – then eradicating a “private” golf course is always a good idea ….
P.S. Minor glitch … It’s “Roehampton”, actually.
Looking at the artist render, it does look like people will be able to walk around the lake. A couple of bridges are shown, plus a line of trees demarcating the tennis courts from the pathway. But, I could be wrong?
Typical wealthy NIMBYs any extra access is a major improvement. Also there is major backing for the plan from key green bodies in respect of its biodiversity.
I agree, very similar situation to the wealthy NIMBY moaners who complained about the Hampstead Heath ponds being rebuilt. Once the work was finished what was all the fuss about.
I’m sure some golfers will lament the loss but the area is hardly short of golf courses!
A sensible response to the transport concerns could be to run a road train during the tournament, from Wimbledon Park station this could mainly run along paths through the new park – quieter, less intrusive and more reliable, and probably more popular with ticket holders, than a regular bus.
First a correction, you say two councils approved the plans. Merton approved, Wandsworth rejected them that is why it had to go to the GLA.
The golf course closed some time ago, the members being bought out by the AELTC, about £80,000 for each member I believe.
The history: the golf course was part of a public park, Wimbledon Park, owned and managed by Merton Borough. Thirty years ago they sold the freehold of the golf part of the park to AELTC for a pittance. A covenant was put in place stating that the land should should remain open space and never be built on. The person in charge of AELTC at the time agreed – look at the Guardian’s piece last week for an exact quote of his words. You may wonder what their intentions were in that case…
Local objections are not just about the area becoming busier, and construction noise!
The plans involve destruction of supposedly protected open space!
The plans are excessive involving a main court building some eleven storeys high, taller than the trees in the park.
I and thousands of other people think this is outrageous.
And I am not wealthy thanks – there is a very large amount of badly designed and built municipal housing to the east of Wimbledon Park. The toffs are largely imported for the tennis event to make the local area unbearable for the rest of us.
Nice decision. Removing a private golf course for a larger public park and a brighter future for one of the most famous brands from the UK.