Wimbledon Park campaigners take their covenant fight to Merton
The 1993 covenants block an 8,000-seat stadium, and Merton has avoided saying if it will enforce them.
Putney News | 6 November 2026 | Kieren McCarthy
The fight over Wimbledon Park is moving to Merton Council.
Later this month a local resident will put the council on the spot again. Behind it is a question Merton has avoided answering for nearly five years. Will it enforce the legal covenants it put on the land when it sold it to the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) in 1993?
Those covenants stand in the way of the club's plans for an 8,000-seat stadium, 38 new tennis courts and other buildings on the old golf course. AELTC has admitted in the High Court that its scheme would breach them, and the judge in that case said the covenants must be resolved before it can go ahead.
Save Wimbledon Park, the residents' campaign against the expansion, wants Merton to "agree to enforce the covenants or explain how they intend to break the law". The resident's own question, as the campaign words it, asks the council to reconsider its refusal to discuss an alternative plan for the land.
Merton agrees the scheme would breach the covenants. It said so in 2024, adding that planning permission does not override them and that the council is free to decide whether to enforce them. What it has not said is whether it will.
