On July 21, Judge Pushpinder Saini rejected the challenge brought by Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) against the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) in London’s High Court. The ruling paves the way for the tennis club to proceed with its approximately $270 million plan. The preceding judicial review was one of multiple hurdles in a years-long battle to make more space for England’s premiere tennis tournament by expanding its footprint onto a neighboring golf course.
ICYMI, as the other three Grand Slam campuses continue to develop, Wimbledon has been facing an increasing desire to expand its offerings both on and off the court. Back in 2021, the AELTC submitted an expansion proposal designed by Allies and Morrison detailing its plans to add 73-acres to the 42-acre grounds, making room to improve player facilities, upgrade the property’s lake, and create a 230-acre park.
After receiving approval from just one of the two necessary boroughs in London, the decision moved to the Greater London Authority (GLA). Although the AELTC got planning permission by the GLA last year, SWP was quick to challenge the ruling. The campaigners argued that the decision failed to properly account for the restrictions placed on land use when it was first purchased in 1993, and that historic landscape by Capability Brown would be put in jeopardy.
In High Court, Judge Pushpinder Saini rejected Save Wimbledon Park’s challenge to the lawfulness of planning permission, maintaining that a covenant signed by the AELTC when it first acquired the land in 1993 was taken into account. Moreover, the judge ruled that the AELTC was well within the established use, noting that the organization “plainly considered that the development would directly benefit the health and wellbeing of communities, whether by directly providing access to high-specification sport facilities for use by communities or, indirectly, by securing the expansion and improvement of public spaces or supporting a range of grassroots groups and charities.”
While the ruling provided a thorough interpretation of the planning policy surrounding the expansion plan, the AELTC has been emboldened by the challenge to further underscore the case’s precedent and clear its roadblocks once and for all. “Our position was and remains that there is not, nor has there ever been, a statutory trust affecting the former Wimbledon Park Golf Course land,” the AELTC shared on its website. “In the circumstances we recognise that the correct thing to do, at this stage, is to put the matter before the court to establish that there is no trust over the land.” A hearing to challenge the existence of the statutory trust has been requested by the AELTC and is scheduled for January 2026.
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