Deputy Mayor of London, Jules Pipe, has taken control of the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s (AELTC) contentious Wimbledon Park Project, with a full planning hearing set to be held.
The decision has been taken after Mayor Sadiq Khan recused himself from the process due to publicly backing the project back in 2021. “This is a major planning application, of London-wide significance,” said a spokesperson for city hall, according to The Guardian.
“Therefore, the Deputy Mayor has issued a direction under article 7 of the Town and Country Planning (Mayor of London) Order that he becomes the local planning authority for the purposes of determining the application. A full planning hearing will be held in due course.”
The AELTC in November maintained that its Wimbledon Park Project offers “significant social, economic and environmental improvements” after the plans were rejected by Wandsworth Council, leading to the referral to the Greater London Authority (GLA).
The Council’s planning committee voted 7-0 against the plans after officers earlier recommended their rejection, concluding that there were no “very special circumstances” that would outweigh the harm to Metropolitan Open Land, with Wimbledon Park having been first designed by landscape architect Capability Brown in the 18th century.
AELTC had cleared the first major hurdle for its Wimbledon Park project in October after it received planning approval from Merton Council. The AELTC, organiser of the Wimbledon Championships, submitted the planning application for Wimbledon Park back in October 2021, seeking to counter criticism of the scheme by issuing a series of ‘mythbusters’.
The AELTC in June 2021 revealed details of a ‘New Park for London’ concept while also providing an update on its proposed 8,000-seat show court. The latest update came after the AELTC in April outlined plans for the 8,000-seat show court as part of an expansion of the Wimbledon grounds.
The AELTC wants to build the stadium on land it purchased from Wimbledon Park Golf Club for £65m (€76.2m/$83m) in 2018 and it had been hoped the court will be ready for play by 2030. The ‘New Park for London’ concept aims to create London’s “newest publicly accessible park”.
The space will open up 9.4 hectares of parkland for locals, with AELTC stating that the area will provide local residents and visitors with access to “high quality green space and parkland”. The park would include a new accessible east-west route connecting into the existing public park and a new circular route around Wimbledon Park Lake.
The AELTC’s plans for the new show court, meanwhile, centre on a tree-like structure and have been conceived to tie in with the surrounding landscape. The court would be located outside of the members’ club and would be open for year-round activities such as smaller tournaments, events and school visits.
Importantly, the plans also include proposals for 38 new courts – a move that would allow qualifying events to be held on-site, bringing Wimbledon in-line with its three fellow grand slam tournaments.
With Wimbledon Park also falling inside the Borough of Wandsworth, its planning committee was also required to approve the project. However, the project as a whole has provoked strong opposition from local politicians, residents and environmentalists.
Responding to the latest news, Debbie Jevans, chair of AELTC, said the Club welcomed the fact that the Mayor of London’s office will determine the future of the project. She stated: “Our proposals will deliver one of the greatest sporting transformations for London since the 2012 Olympics. 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.”
