London News Online: "Have I Got News star adds his support to fight against Wimbledon tennis expansion"

London News Online | 7 April 2025 | Yann Tear

Have I Got News star Andy Hamilton; 100 years old actress Thelma Ruby; Scoolboy campaigner Gabriel.

"Comedian Andy Hamilton was one of the key figures taking part in Save Wimbledon Park’s held their sixth public meeting in opposition to the mammoth proposed development of the former Wimbledon Park golf club.

The All England Tennis Club (AELTC) submitted ground-breaking expansion plans, which were approved by Merton council and rejected by Wandsworth council.

The GLA were asked to rule, and they passed the plans. That decision is now the subject of a Judicial Review, launched by Save Wimbledon Park earlier this year. The estimated legal costs of bringing such a challenge are £200k, for which a crowdjustice funding appeal is currently underway.

A capacity crowd at St Barnabas Church in Southfields, heard legal and environmental presentations about the nature of the judicial challenge and the impact to the area if it all goes ahead.

Special guest and local resident Andy Hamilton (A Have I Got News For You regular) gave an impassioned speech on the importance of green open spaces under threat.

Mr Hamilton said: “It’s important that the community win this battle to stop the AELTC swallowing up valued green spaces in order to build an industrial scale tennis complex.”

Save Wimbledon Park say AELTC were invited but did not attend, with their place on the stage was taken by a tennis racquet bearing their name.

Meeting organiser Simon Wright said “Another sell-out meeting indicates the strength of local feeling that these are the wrong plans for Wimbledon Park.

“During the Q&A session, the audience made it very clear that they do not want 39 practice courts, vast maintenance hubs, concrete driveways and a stadium the size of the Royal Albert Hall to be built in Wimbledon Park.”

Among those speaking out against the planned expansion was Thelma Ruby, who said: “I am 100 year old actress, living overlooking Wimbledon Common golf course. I am appalled by the Wimbledon tennis plan to ruin my life by chopping down hundreds of precious trees and turning a glorious heritage landscape into a polluting building site.

“If I have to see the desecration of my view and polluting lorries passing my door every 10 minutes and hear chain saws cutting down the trees I love instead of the sound of birds and Canada geese, I would rather not be alive. I am prepared to chain myself to a tree to save it.”

School boy Gabriel, nine, of Bishop Gilpin Primary School, said: “I think the AELTC planning is a terrible idea. A few months ago I started a petition to save the trees in Wimbledon Park. My friends and I spoke to the whole school, and put posters up, I have over 100 signatures.

“My petition is about the trees and wildlife because I care about the environment. I also love tennis I even play every week at the Wimbledon Club, but I would rather keep the trees and quit tennis if it helped. I think it is important to protect these trees at all costs.”