{"id":294203,"date":"2025-11-19T22:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T22:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/294203\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T22:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T22:48:07","slug":"wimbledons-expansion-plans-heading-for-court-of-appeal-after-judges-ruling-wimbledon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/294203\/","title":{"rendered":"Wimbledon\u2019s expansion plans heading for court of appeal after judge\u2019s ruling | Wimbledon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wimbledon\u2019s battle to build 39 new grass courts<\/a> on a nearby golf course has taken a fresh twist after local residents were granted permission to take a judicial review case to the court of appeal.<\/p>\n

Last year the All England Club (AELTC) was given approval by Jules Pipe, the London deputy mayor for planning and regeneration, to build the courts on what used to be Wimbledon<\/a> Park Golf Club \u2013 a decision that was then endorsed in the high court on 21 July. However, the Save Wimbledon Park pressure group challenged that verdict and on Monday it was announced that Lord Justice Holgate had granted a judicial review of the court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

Explaining the reasons for granting the order, Holgate wrote that: \u201cThe grounds of appeal are arguable with a real prospect of success. The case law on scheme benefits, deliverability, relevance, material considerations and irrationality merits review.\u201d<\/p>\n

SWP maintains that the expansion plans will create a \u201ctennis industrial complex\u201d, which will damage the environment and has failed to properly listen to the community. It is also fighting its legal battle with the All England Club on two other fronts, including a separate court case in January, where a judge will consider the possibility that the golf course could be subject to a \u201cstatutory trust\u201d and thus be reserved for public recreation.<\/p>\n

It is also considering whether to go to court to challenge a \u201crestrictive covenant\u201d given by the AELTC committee in 1993 in which it promised never to develop the land.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a David and Goliath struggle,\u201d Save Wimbledon Park said in a statement. \u201cThe AELTC is a rich and well-connected corporate developer which has worked for decades to take over a substantial part of this highly protected public Park for its own purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christopher Coombe, a local lawyer who opposes the plans, added: \u201cSWP has never been anti-tennis. We believe that it is high time for the AELTC to recognise the raft of legal and principled problems with its proposals and sit down and talk constructively with SWP and the local community.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the All England Club remains confident that its expansion plans, which would triple the size of its grounds, will go ahead despite this latest stumbling block. In a statement, a spokesperson said: \u201cWe are confident that the court of appeal will ultimately judge that the high court made the correct decision in upholding the Greater London<\/a> Authority\u2019s grant of planning permission for a development that will enable us to deliver one of the greatest sporting transformations since the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur plans will create a permanent home for the Wimbledon qualifying competition but crucially they also deliver 27 acres of beautiful new parkland for local people to enjoy, providing the public access to green space that has been used as a private members golf club for more than 100 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wimbledon\u2019s battle to build 39 new grass courts on a nearby golf course has taken a fresh twist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-294203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}