Significant National Voices Supporting Save Wimbledon Park - The January Court Case Matters To Every Person In The UK

(But Don’t Just Take Our Word For it…)

"This is a watershed moment for London's parks. Should councils have unfettered powers to sell parks? We say no, on the contrary, the law should be tightened to protect parks across the country - and the public's right to those parks. London's parks are not for sale. If as in this case, the park was sold, in the past, on the understanding it should not be used for commercial purposes, then the public's rights should be protected."

Alice Roberts

Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England, London

“The Save Wimbledon Park team have been engaged in a David v Goliath battle with the All England Club for almost 5 years to stop them turning Wimbledon Park into an industrial tennis complex. My constituents are proud of both Wimbledon Park and Wimbledon’s international reputation as the home of tennis and firmly believe that a sensible compromise can be achieved to preserve both the park and the All England Club’s position at the pinnacle of world tennis provided they enter into a meaningful dialogue with the local community. Wimbledon park has been publicly owned for centuries, and the forthcoming legal action to determine whether Wimbledon Park is a public trust of land has implications for green spaces across the UK.”

Mr. Paul Kohler

MP for Wimbledon

“The Open Spaces Society is committed to the protection of public rights over land. The society was delighted when the Supreme Court found in favour of Mr Day requiring that local authorities must be held to account when disposing of open space they hold on behalf of the public. The society stood up again when some peers sought to amend a Bill last year that would have removed this accountability. Such an amendment would have incentivised cash-strapped local authorities to feign ignorance when disposing of land they hold on trust for the benefit of the public. We commend Save Wimbledon Park for its ongoing efforts to uphold this important principle— public open space should not be allowed to be sold by public organisations on a whim.”

Kate Ashbrook

General Secretary, Open Spaces Society

“I wish SWP well. Similar to my ‘Shropshire’ case, as decided by the Supreme Court in March 2023, where a local authority had sold land subject to a trust, but had failed to comply with the necessary requirements including advertising the fact, the rights of the public under the statutory trust have not been extinguished. Local authorities have a responsibility to take stock of how they hold the grounds, walks and open spaces made available to the public to enjoy. Ignorance is no excuse.”

Dr Peter Day

Successful litigant, Supreme Court, Day vs Shropshire

“AELTC are going to decimate the park, at huge cost to the local environment and the local community. It’s just absurd, the scale of it, and really, they float lots of spurious reasons why are they doing it. The real reason is the club just wants to triple the size of the current Wimbledon tennis estate so that they can bring in more visitors and make a very rich private members club even richer.”

Andy Hamilton, Writer and Local Resident

"The Wimbledon Society has consistently opposed the AELTC’s deeply damaging plans, which would irreversibly harm one of London’s most highly protected areas of open space. We have worked closely with the Save Wimbledon Park campaign for many years and now welcome the opportunity to test our long-held view that the land is safeguarded by a statutory recreation trust".

Kevin O’Neil

Chair, The Wimbledon Society