Update on SWP Legal Proceedings and CrowdJustice Funding

Supporters’ Bulletin no. (7) - 10 June 2025.

As our supporters will by now be aware, there are two court cases currently in progress between SWP and The All England Lawn Tennis Club. One relates to planning – seeking Judicial Review (JR) of the decision of the GLA to grant planning permission for the AELTC development on the former golf course land in Wimbledon Park. Those proceedings are still due to be heard in the High Court on 8 and 9 July 2025.

The other case relates to the legal status of the land. SWP argue that the land is protected by a statutory trust for public recreation. The AELTC disagree with this and have started High Court proceedings to decide the point.

At a hearing today in the statutory trust proceedings, the Court decided that SWP is a suitable body to act as a Representative Defendant i.e. capable of representing the interests of all those in the community interested in arguing that the statutory trust exists. For good measure, the Court decided that the Attorney General, as guardian of the public interest, should be joined into the proceedings.

Normally, cases have to join a queue to come on for trial, and delays are quite common. In our case, however, the Court was persuaded that a degree of expedition is justified. The upshot is that the trial has been fixed to start in mid-January 2026, with a time estimate of 6 days. It remains the case that the AELTC has agreed to cover SWP’s legal costs of acting as a Representative Defendant in this case.

SWP is dependent on crowdfunding for the Judicial Review. A public meeting will take place next Monday 16 June in St Mark’s Church Hall in Wimbledon Town Centre, starting at 7.30 pm. This will be an opportunity for us to update our supporters on the progress of both court cases. We hope too to push our crowdfunding closer to the £160,000 target. So far, through the public CrowdJustice site, we have raised the magnificent sum of £124,490 from an astonishing 985 donors. It would be marvellous to get to 1,000 donors by Monday evening.