The All England Club looks set to win its lengthy battle to build 39 new courts on the former Wimbledon Park golf site after the Greater London Authority (GLA) recommended that the project should be approved. The AELTC’s plans have been the subject of considerable opposition from local residents, and the expansion was referred to the GLA after Wandsworth Council rejected the proposal last November. Merton Council initially approved the plans.
Advertisement On Thursday, officers at the GLA recommended that the deputy mayor should grant conditional planning permission for the scheme, which also involves building an 8,000-seater stadium that would act as a third Wimbledon show court, at a public hearing next Friday. In a 221-page report, the GLA officers concluded that it had found “no material considerations that are considered to justify the refusal of consent”. They accepted there would be a loss of open space but stated that the “balance is clearly in favour of” approving the scheme.
The expansion will allow the All England Club to host the qualifying competition for Wimbledon on site, as is the case at the three other Grand Slams. As things stand, the qualifying competition takes place in the comparatively humble surroundings of the Roehampton community sports centre a few miles away. Local opposition groups like Save Wimbledon Park have said that the expansion would leave the area as a “huge industrial tennis complex”.
Jonathan Morrish of Save Wimbledon Park .