Fault! : SWP’s notable supporter and advocate Andy Hamilton shares his reflections on the battle to Save Wimbledon Park from AELTC development

Comedy Writer, Andy Hamilton

FAULT!! Wimbledon’s plan must be called out as it crosses every line, writes Andy Hamilton

It’s that time of year again, when leafy SW19 echoes with the soothing sounds of Wimbledon. The rhythmic striking of tennis balls, the expectant buzz of spectators, the ripples of applause, the crash of falling trees, the roar of bulldozers. Wait, what? Surely some mistake?

Well, no, because that cacophony will become the soundscape that tens of thousands of Londoners will forever associate with the Championships, if the All England Lawn Tennis Club is allowed to triple the size of its current estate and build a proposed industrial-scale complex. It’s a project that will mean ten years of destruction, bringing permanent environmental damage to a beautiful chunk of South West London.

Actress Thelma Ruby with Andy Hamilton

I’ll declare my interest right away. I’ve lived in this area for 40 years. My wife and I chose to start a family here because it accounted for two of the greenest pages in the London A-Z. But much of that greenery is under threat from the absurdly huge development the AELTC seems intent on pursuing. Predictably, those who oppose their scheme are being characterized as NIMBYs. But, let’s get one thing straight, the AELTC are not building social housing. Or orphanages. Ot homeless shelters. Or refuges for people who’ve been traumatized by the price of their Pimms.

They are not civic-minded benefactors. They are a very exclusive private tennis club, which already makes big profits and is looking to make even more with a ludicrous expansion that will make life miserable – and indeed unhealthy – for all its neighbours. Much of the land they intend to build over is flanked by a grid of terraced housing, full of families with young children. If this scheme goes ahead, the years of traffic chaos, noise, dust, and pollution will see those kids spending a lot more time indoors.

Of course, the AELTC have made various promises about how responsibly the construction work will be conducted. But, to local residents, those promises ring hollow, due to a distinct absence of trust.

The story begins back in 1993 when the AELTC were able to buy the Wimbledon Park Golf Club – 73 acres of prime London real estate – for the knock-down price of £5.2 million. They got it cheap because they gave an undertaking that the land would not be commercially developed. Indeed, at the time, that undertaking was enshrined in a legal covenant. (For reasons that are hard to understand, Merton Council have so far declined to enforce that covenant.)

Initially, the AELTC indicated that they merely wanted to build a few additional grass courts. So local residents were not unduly concerned. But, over time, the number of proposed courts began to grow, and grow, and grow, until, eventually, we were presented with a non-negotiable plan consisting of 38 new grass courts, ten large buildings, 9.4 kilometres of roads and paths, a 30,000 square foot maintenance “hub”, and, to top it off, the cherry on the cake – a stadium the size of the Albert Hall.

It's hard to convey the sheer scale of destruction that will be required to achieve all this. Currently, the territory in question is a series of gentle, tree-covered hills. Obviously, the likes of Alcaraz and Sinner would take a dim view of having to serve uphill. So almost every inch of that landscape will have to be excavated and then flattened into platforms.

The total number of trees that will eventually need to be felled is disputed. But the figure is somewhere between 300 and 800. Many of the trees that will disappear are over 100 years old. In the developers’ weirdly utopian CGI of the finished product, there is a cheerful sprinkling of little saplings. But again, this is hard to believe. When did you last see a lawn tennis court surrounded by trees? Trees are kryptonite to lawns. They cast shade, shed leaves, and have undermining root systems.

Also, what chance will any new trees stand when surrounded by so much concrete? At best, we may end up with a few puny “whips” where once there were hundreds of mature ash, hawthorn and oak.

The AELTC like to make great play of a new section of parkland they say they are going to create. But when you look at the planned layout of this complex – with all its paths, roads, hard-standings and buildings – it’s difficult to imagine where there will be enough room to squeeze in any greenery among all that concrete

And what is the AELTC’s justification for needing all this? Well, they put forward two arguments. The first is that the scheme is essential to keep the championships at the “pinnacle of world tennis”. Wimbledon is the second most profitable tournament in the world. And it is the only one played on grass. It is unique. Realistically, it has no reason to be looking over its shoulder.

Their second argument is that it is an embarrassment that Wimbledon is the only elite tournament where the qualifying rounds do not happen on site. (They take place at Roehampton, a whole fifteen minutes’ drive away. And it’s a very nice venue, by the way.) I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that, in the entire history of tennis, there has never been a lowly-ranked player who has thought “D’you know, I’d quite like to try to qualify for Wimbledon, but I can’t be arsed to go to Roehampton.”

Clearly, both these arguments are spurious nonsense. The AELTC mounts them because they are embarrassed by the one real reason, namely that they want to accommodate more visitors, keep them inside the complex spending their money all day, and thus generate even greater profits. What they really want to see happening on-site is the ker-ching.

The land in question is split by the boundaries of Wandsworth and Merton councils. Wandworth’s councillors rejected the planning application, forcefully and unanimously by seven votes to nil. Merton narrowly approved it, by six votes to four. As the decision was deadlocked, it was referred upwards to the Greater London Authority. The GLA looked at this very complex planning application and, with surprising speed, decided to pass it. Perhaps inevitably, they said that the environmental downside – and the 20,000 lodged objections from the public – were outweighed by the scheme’s potential economic benefits.

How many times have we seen this movie now? It’s always the same story, where a magic number containing lots of noughts is conjured out of vague estimates, without factoring in the cost of the damage that will be incurred along the way. What will be the price of the hours of economic activity lost to the traffic jams? The rise in hospitalizations due to asthma? The constant repairing of the roads? I doubt the GLA have budgeted for consequences such as these.

On Tuesday 8th July, the Championship quarter-finals will begin on the show courts. On the same day, the AELTC will find itself in another court, the High Court, for a judicial review of the GLA’s decision to permit this mega-development. The planning approval is being challenged on various points of law. If the club loses on any point, it will have to go back to the drawing board.

The stupid part is that it need never have come to this. The local community were never opposed to any development whatsoever. But the AELTC have refused to negotiate or compromise. Instead, they’ve bombarded local residents with “community newsletters” and online flim-flam full of PR bullshine about how they’ve “engaged” with the local community. Well, that engagement did not extend to sending representatives to any of the meetings organized by the Save Wimbledon Park campaign. If they had bothered to attend, they might have realized how angry the local community had become - angry enough to raise £200,000 for legal costs to fight their corner.

The All England Lawn Tennis Club is a private members’ club with just 375 members. Yet throughout this stand-off, it has displayed an extremely corporate mindset. I’m sure they felt confident that the big money always wins in the end, so they’ve been arrogant, dismissive, and far from transparent. They have consistently failed, for instance, to absolutely rule out using the new stadium for commercial gigs, or building a hotel on the site. Instead, they’ve hidden behind the statement “there are no plans”, a formula so beloved by politicians.

For me, the sadness is that I’ve always loved Wimbledon fortnight. I grew up thrilling to the exploits of Laver, Borg, Navratilova and McEnroe. I have spent endless hours shouting “Come on Tim!” at my TV. I have roared myself hoarse in support of Andy Murray. But the money-minded empire-building of the AELTC has left me feeling disenchanted with it all, to put it at its very mildest.

Now, you might be forgiven for concluding this is a local story that only affects South-West Londoners. But up and down the country, there are around 50 projects which are threatening to swallow up precious urban green spaces. Often it is big sport that is behind these projects. This case could set a grim precedent.

The choice that the High Court faces on July 8th will be whether to protect one of the loveliest parts of our city for future generations, or whether to sacrifice it to short-sighted greed. And once it is gone, it is gone for good.

It feels as if we are approaching the crucial tie-breaker at the end of five attritional sets. And, in the finest Wimbledon tradition, I shall be rooting for the underdog.