Wimbledon offers up more public land as club seeks to get expansion over the line

LONDON : Britain’s All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) is offering up extra parkland for public use in a bid to get massive expansion plans over the line, which it says will protect the Wimbledon Championships for years to come.

The offer of an extra four acres of parkland, announced by Greater London Authority (GLA) planners on Thursday, means the host of the world famous grasscourt Grand Slam event now plans to make some 27 acres of parkland accessible to the public.

The land had previously been part of a private members’ golf club, bought by the AELTC to enable development.

"I am delighted that ... we are now proposing even more green space for Londoners to enjoy, on land that has been inaccessible to the public for more than 100 years," All England chair Debbie Jevans said.

She added that the club had conducted some 100 tours of the proposed parkland and engaged with more than 7,000 people as part of a consultation process.

"Our plans to transform the former Wimbledon Park Golf Course will deliver one of the greatest sporting transformations for London since the 2012 Olympics.

"We are committed to delivering significant social and environmental improvements, as well as creating hundreds of jobs and generating millions of pounds in economic benefits."

Opponents of the development say, however, that the club's plans will cause environmental damage, major disruption for the best part of a decade, and are unnecessarily ambitious in scale.

ONLINE PETITION

An online petition started by a group called Save Wimbledon Park has more than 18,000 signatures.

The group was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters, but concerns listed on its website include what it calls “Unacceptable Environmental Impact”, fears