Furious Wimbledon residents to protest against All England Club’s ‘Disneyland’ expansion plans

Wimbledon residents plan to stage a protest in an attempt to block the All England Club’s “Disneyland” style expansion plans.

On Tuesday, around 250 residents attended a meeting at St Barnabas Church in Earlsfield, where they voiced their anger about the AELTC’s planned development, with one resident accusing the club of wanting to “build a Disneyland”.

The plans include 38 new tennis courts and one 8,000-seater show court built on the 73-acre Wimbledon Park Golf Club site, which the AELTC bought back the freehold to five years ago. The AELTC also hopes to build a tunnel to run under Church Road to connect the new area to its existing site.

Residents have moved from disgruntled to downright furious with the handling of the process, saying the club failed to adequately consult with them. Some accused club representatives of “lying” about the extent of the development during more than 50 guided tours the AELTC hosted for residents around the grounds – an assertion the AELTC strongly disagrees with.

The AELTC declined an invitation to Tuesday night’s meeting and were empty-chaired by organisers, who placed a tennis racket with a post-it note tag saying “AELTC” on stage instead.

Such is the frustration among residents that they plan to stage a protest at an upcoming crucial planning permission meeting, in which a committee for Merton and Wandsworth Councils will decide the fate of the AELTC’s £200 million project.

The “Save Wimbledon Park” campaign has now amassed almost 12,500 signatures on an online petition.

‘This is the time for community activism’

Fleur Anderson and Stephen Hammond – who are respectively the Labour MP for Putney and the Conservative MP for Wimbledon – have both opposed the plans over the past year, and both spoke in favour of community activism at Tuesday’s public meeting.

Anderson said public campaigns can make a difference – pointing to the Battersea residents who forced Formula E bosses to abandon hosting further races in their local park after staging a protest at the inaugural event in 2016.

During his speech, Hammond said: “This is the time for community activism.”

A resolution to the issue depends on the all-important council meeting, which had been due to take place on Wednesday but was delayed again. There are fears it may not happen until the new year at this stage.

The AELTC first submitted their planning application in July 2021, and have outlined a number of ecological benefits their development will bring to the area, as well as permanent public access to a section of the park. The club originally hoped to receive planning permission by the end of 2021, when the golf course closed.

However, nearly two years on, the meeting date for Merton and Wandsworth Council keeps getting pushed back. As the site is positioned within both boroughs, both councils need to approve the club’s plans in order for the development to get the green light. Once the councils have finally ruled, the project will likely be referred to London mayor Sadiq Khan or the secretary of state.

Responding to Tuesday’s public meeting, chief executive of the All England Club Sally Bolton told the Telegraph: “Our planning application for the AELTC Wimbledon Park Project has been under consideration by the London boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth for more than two years. These proposals have been rightly and properly subject to a very high level of assessment and consultation both prior to and since their submission.

“We are proud of the substantial community benefits included within the application, which include year-round permanent access to 23 acres of beautiful new parkland available for the free use of the local community.

“To date, we have hosted 56 guided tours of the former golf course land and a further nine events at which local residents have had the opportunity to speak to members of the project team and learn more about the plans. We are pleased that more than 4,600 attendees have come along to one of our consultation events, with the overwhelming majority really excited about the plans and keen to see the community benefits delivered as soon as possible.”

But those within the packed church on Tuesday are not in that group of excited local residents. There was a queue out the door as more stacks of chairs were hastily positioned in every available space, and around 250 people in attendance. Only four or five hands went up when asked if they were in favour of Wimbledon’s plans at the beginning of the meeting, with about a dozen saying they were unsure.

‘My life would be ruined if this goes ahead’

Presentations from the organisers outlined legal and environmental concerns with the AELTC’s plans. Residents in the audience were then given the floor, and expressed particular annoyance about the 8,000-seater ‘Parkland’ show court included in the plans. Apart from the 8,000-seater stadium, the AELTC has maintained that the development will primarily cater to the qualifying stages of the Championships, which currently take place in Roehampton. Wimbledon is currently the only major to not host those matches on site.

Some residents also looked to the future and were worried that if they did not push back on the AELTC’s plans now, “in 30 years there could be hotels and helipads” built on the site.

Others were more worried about the immediate impact of thousands of lorries and construction noise that would be expected for the next eight years. “I’m an old lady, but the rest of my life would be completely ruined if this goes ahead,” one said.

The AELTC is recommencing its guided tours onsite for residents, which will take place monthly from September to November, and January to April 2024.