Wimbledon’s expansion plans to be challenged in appeal court

A legal battle over plans to almost triple the size of the Wimbledon tennis site is to be taken to the Court of Appeal by local campaigners.

Plans were approved by the Greater London Authority (GLA) in September 2024 for the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) to build 38 tennis courts and an 8,000-seat stadium on the former Wimbledon Park Golf Club in west London.

Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) said it was delighted to be able to appeal, and described their challenge as “a David and Goliath struggle.”

AELTC said the plans “will create a permanent home for the Wimbledon Qualifying Competition and deliver 27 acres of beautiful new parkland”.

In July, SWP’s High Court legal action against the GLA over its decision to grant planning permission for the expansion was dismissed.

During that hearing, barristers for SWP told the court that the decision to approve the plans was “irrational” and should be quashed.

They claimed Wimbledon Park – a Grade II*-listed heritage site partly designed by Lancelot “Capability” Brown – was covered by trusts and covenants governing how it could be used.

SWP said following the ruling that it believed the judge “took insufficient account of the statutory trust and the restrictive covenants”.

Separate High Court proceedings are now ongoing over whether a statutory trust existed, with a hearing in that case due to take place in January 2026.

SWP said that having an appeal granted showed “The Community and SWP can’t be ‘steam-rollered'”.

Christopher Coombe of SWP said: “SWP 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.”

AELTC said they were “confident the Court of Appeal will ultimately judge that the High Court made the correct decision in upholding the GLA’s grant of planning permission”.

The club said the plans would “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”.

A GLA spokesperson said: “The mayor believes this scheme will bring a significant range of benefits including environmental, economic, social and cultural benefits to the local area, the wider capital and the UK economy.

“It will create new jobs, public green spaces and cement Wimbledon’s reputation as the greatest tennis competition in the world.”

It said with legal proceedings ongoing, it could not comment further.

A date for the appeal hearing, which is set to be held over two days, is yet to be confirmed.