Plans to eat into Wimbledon Park golf course in order to expand the tennis club are making waves in the south London neighbourhood.
Trouble is afoot in Wimbledon. Well, we suppose whether you’d call it trouble depends on whether your heart lies with wide open, green public spaces or the game of tennis.
Plans have been put forward to expand Wimbledon tennis club (yes, the very same club where they hold the world-famous Wimbledon tennis tournament) into the nearby Wimbledon Park golf course.
Local residents aren’t too happy. There have already been over 2000 letters of objection submitted to the local council, and a petition under the name of Save Wimbledon Park is climbing close to 14,000 signatures. Furthermore, at a council meeting in October to discuss the matter a crowd of about 75 protesters turned out to oppose the plans.
What do the Plans Entail?
Simple answer: triple the size of the current facilities. This will involve the construction of no less than 38 new grass courts and a brand-new 8000-seater stadium named the ‘Parkland show court’ for high-stakes tennis matches.
That’s not all though. The plans will also mean that the tennis club will have space (and you can bet your bottom dollar they’ll do this) to build new corporate hospitality facilities that will bring in heaps more cash come tournament time.
This would of course come with things like car parks. Protesters were worried it would impact the large number of trees in the area but the club says its plans will actually double the number of trees on the site through protection of veteran trees and planting of new ones.
This is no doubt going to play out into the future, with various objections and redrafted proposals to come. Should the plans get the green light, the expanded Wimbledon should be completed by 2030.
