Wimbledon planning ‘tennis Disneyland’ with 38 courts however residents livid
Wimbledon residents are livid on the All England Tennis & Croquet Club’s £200million growth plans. In a public assembly on Tuesday, on the St Barnabas Church in Earlsfield, residents voiced their anger and declared that they’d stage a protest in an try to dam Wimbledon’s “disruptive” “Disneyland” developments.
The plans embrace 38 new tennis courts and an 8,000-seater stadium on a neighbouring golf course. One resident accused AELTC of wanting to construct a tennis “Disneyland” whereas others slammed membership representatives for “lying” concerning the extent of the developments.
AELTC refused to show as much as the assembly, which was attended by 250 disgruntled residents however rejected the assertions made by their opposition. Chief govt of the All England Club Sally Bolton instructed the Telegraph: “Our planning application for the AELTC Wimbledon Park Project has been under consideration by the London boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth for more than two years.
“These proposals have been rightly and properly subject to a very high level of assessment and consultation both prior to and since their submission.
“We are proud of the substantial community benefits included within the application, which include year-round permanent access to 23 acres of beautiful new parkland available for the free use of the local community.
“To date, we have hosted 56 guided tours of the former golf course land and a further nine events at which local residents have had the opportunity to speak to members of the project team and learn more about the plans. We are pleased that more than 4,600 attendees have come along to one of our consultation events, with the overwhelming majority really excited about the plans and keen to see the community benefits delivered as soon as possible.”
However, a number of residents in addition to the 2 MPs for Putney and Wimbledon, Labour’s Fleur Anderson and Conservative Stephen Hammond, are adamantly in opposition to the plans. Anderson has known as for AELTC to work in the direction of growing their Roehampton website somewhat than constructing on the golf course which she says would deliver “an industrial-scale development in our park”.
Meanwhile, Hammond says the event is “too big” and desires AELTC to rethink their proposal earlier than submitting it to Merton and Wandsworth Councils. An on-line petition “Save Wimbledon Park” has now amassed nearly 12,500 signatures in opposition to the plans as residents insist they will not go down and not using a combat.