Inside the years-long contentious planning row at Wimbledon

The roof over centre court at Wimbledon was closed for the first time on this day in 2009 (Zac Goodwin/PA) (PA Archive)

Strawberries and cream, Pimms, and Murray mound are phrases reserved for one of the great British sporting spectacles: Wimbledon.

Thousands of people will descend on SW19 to breath in the captivating atmosphere and see tennis’s top stars such as Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff.

The competition will get under way on Monday and as people walk to the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) along Church Road, they will spot a bit of land that used to be a golf club and is the location of a contentious planning row.

AELTC bought the lease of the neighbouring Wimbledon Park Golf Club for a reported £65million in 2018 and have ambitious plans to for the site, which also includes Wimbledon Park Lake.

It wants to build 38 new courts, including a third show court with a capacity of 8,000 seats and retractable roof, as well as designated north and south player hubs, while also providing publicly-accessible parkland.

Under the proposals, originally submitted in 2021, the grounds will almost triple in size and allow Wimbledon to host the qualifying tournaments in SW19, rather than their current home a couple of miles away in Roehampton.

Completion is projected for 2030, which will see an increase in the capacity of the championships from 42,000 to 50,000 and also deliver “benefits relating to heritage open space, recreation and community”.

However, the application is at a gridlock as the ambitious scheme has not gone down well with some residents, who have set up a campaign group, Save Wimbledon Park, to object to the development and garnered thousands of petition signatures.

Christopher Coombe, a retired lawyer who specialised in commercial property, is one such member of the group, who has laid out the case against the development.

He told The Independent: “The first thing is that its Green Belt land and should not be built upon, second thing is it is Grade-II star listed heritage park and there if you cause harm to the heritage, that development would not be allowed unless it was clearly outweighed by lots of benefits. We say there is no weighting to the benefits they are offering.

“The third point is environmentally, it’s what’s called an irreplaceable habitat, it was parkland it should remain parkland and the planning rules say you should develop irreplaceable habitat.”

Iain Simpson, chairman of the Wimbledon Park Residents Association, is another local group incensed by the application.

He told the Daily Mirror: “The size of the development is just totally unacceptable. It’s a ridiculous application. If you think of all the obstacles lying in front of them, in terms of development, it’s just a smack in the face for anything that we could possibly rely on in terms of legal obligations. Basically, nobody trusts them anymore.”

The long-running saga has had multiple twists and turns already in the planning system. The AELTC application was passed by Merton Council in October last year, but the site is also partially in Wandsworth, who refused the application.

The decision has now been referred upwards to the Greater London Authority, and then could well end up in the hands of whoever ends up being the relevant Secretary of State after the general election.

In May, AELTC made a further effort to win over disgruntled locals with the inlucsion of inclusion of four more acres of public parkland, bringing the total to 27 acres.

Chair Debbie Jevans said: “I am delighted that, following the many thousands of conversations we have had with local people about our plans, and working with the Greater London Authority, we are now able to propose even more green space for Londoners to enjoy, on land that has been inaccessible to the public for more than 100 years.

“We continue to be committed to delivering significant social and environmental improvements, as well as creating hundreds of jobs and generating millions of pounds in economic benefits.”

Save Wimbledon Park group, with chair Iain Simpson was unimpressed and said the changed were “extremely disappointing” and that the area will still become “a huge industrial tennis complex.”

The long-running saga is one of many difficult decisions that the next government will have to tackle.