- The All England Club wants to build 38 new courts in its Wimbledon expansion
- The proposal was approved by the London mayor's office last September.
- Local residents are opposing the decision because they want the land to be available for community use.
Wimbledon's controversial expansion plans will be decided in court after a local protest group launched legal action against the club's proposal.
The All England Club wants to build 38 new grass courses on land bought from Wimbledon Park Golf Club in 2018 and appeared to have won a decisive victory when the London mayor's office approved the plans last September.
But after that meeting, local residents vowed to continue the fight. “We're just entering the third set tie-break and we have a lot of aces to serve,” said retired local lawyer Christopher Coombe.
Their first ace appears to have been delivered when the Save Wimbledon Park group announced they had launched legal action against “the greater London authority and also the All England Club and the London boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth as interested parties.”
The central idea of the challenge is for Wimbledon Park to be covered by a legal trust, which enshrines the land for public use and prohibits private development. The All England Club believes no such trust exists and in December took the pre-emptive step of asking a court to rule on the matter, a case which has not yet begun.
Jeremy Hudson of Save Wimbledon Park said: “We have taken this momentous step because our trustees, members and the community feel strongly that this precious, historic and highly protected environment should be preserved from inappropriate development, allowed to remain accessible and continue to be available for use. community for sport and recreation.
The mayor's office approved plans in September to build 38 new courts at Wimbledon.
The Save Wimbledon Park group announced it has taken legal action in light of the plans.
'We must make the AELTC reflect. “This step is not only for our local community, but also important for many other Metropolitan Open Land spaces under threat of development.”
Wimbledon remains confident that its plans will eventually come to fruition, but continuing disputes mean balls will not be hit on those new courts until 2030 at the earliest.
And for a club that prides itself on being a jewel in the crown of its community, being taken to court by local residents is an extremely uncomfortable position.