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‘Greenwashing’ Wimbledon expansion could mean 10 times more lorries than expected
Vast development ‘out of kilter’ with its surroundings, say opponents, as they warn that planners have underestimated construction traffic
A project to expand Wimbledon’s tennis club could mean 10 times more lorries passing through the area than estimated, critics have said.
The plans include an 8,000-seat show court and 39 tennis courts on 67ha of land bought for £65 million by the Wimbledon All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) from the Wimbledon Park Golf Course in 2018.
It will increase the capacity of the tennis tournament from 42,000 people to 50,000 spectators a day.
But locals from the Wimbledon Society, founded by volunteers in 1903, are objecting to the development over concerns about the amount of pollution and the impact on local wildlife, including bats.
Stephen Hammond, the Conservative MP for Wimbledon, and Fleur Anderson, the Labour MP for Putney, have both objected to the development and urged residents to write to the local councils.
'This is over-development'
David Dawson, a local ecologist, said Wimbledon AELTC was essentially “greenwashing” by promising to increase biodiversity and protect veteran trees, as well as planting 1,500 more.
He said the development, expected to take more than eight years to complete, would disturb eight different bat populations that are resident in the park.
“We're very likely to lose some bat species,” he said.
Other concerns include the removal of trees and public access to the development.
Mr Dawson said: “They're able to argue that they're getting a net gain for biodiversity. But almost all of what they're proposing to create or improve is already there, or good. And it's very hard in the face of intensive development to improve a place like this. Intensive development will always harm.”
He said the developers were focused on the protection of veteran trees, at the expense of others.
“There's 250-odd trees that are simply in the way of development. They're the next generation of veteran trees,” he said.
He said local residents were not “anti-tennis” but were opposed to the scale of the Wimbledon expansion. “This is over-development, it's out of kilter,” he said.
'Inappropriate scale'
Critics of the plan are also concerned about the disruption during the construction of the site, and say Wimbledon AELTC have underestimated the amount of lorry journeys involved by around 10 times.
A joint statement from Mr Hammond and Ms Anderson said: “The size and mass of the new show court stadium is of an inappropriate scale to be built on Metropolitan Open Land.
“We therefore request that when Merton and Wandsworth councils consider the application, they hold a special full planning committee to discuss only this issue, and we urge both councils to reject the proposal.”
A spokesman for Wimbledon AELTC said: “Our careful and detailed environmental work – which is publicly available – has been independently assessed by statutory bodies, who acknowledge that the Wimbledon Park Project will deliver substantial ecological improvements.”