AELTC comes under firing range of Wimbledon residents amid the proposed ‘Disneyland’ expansion plan for the Championships

Wimbledon is planning on building 38 new tennis courts.

AELTC comes under firing range of Wimbledon residents amid the proposed ‘Disneyland’ expansion plan for the Championships

Wimbledon Park (Image via Sports Illustrated)

The All England Tennis & Croquet Club (AELTC) has been facing scrutiny from Wimbledon residents over their proposed ‘Disneyland’ expansion plan worth £200million. The residents are not happy with the club representatives hiding the details and have threatened to stage a protest if AELTC goes ahead with their plan.

Notably, AELTC is planning on laying 38 tennis courts and an 8,000-seater stadium on a neighboring golf course. However, the residents are not happy with this saying it is too big and also claiming that it will bring industry-scale development to the park.

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Meanwhile, AELTC has been defending itself saying the club’s plan will only benefit the residents as they will have year-round permanent access to 23 acres of beautiful new parkland which will be available for the free use of the local community.

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Sally Bolton explains Wimbledon’s expansion plans

Sally Bolton
Sally Bolton (Image via Wimbledon)

While Wimbledon residents gathered to express their displeasure over this expansion plan proposed by AELTC, no one from the club attended the unofficial meeting held at the St Barnabas Church in Earlsfield. Nevertheless, All England Club Chief Executive Sally Bolton has defended their proposal saying it will benefit everyone. Sally also claimed that residents have been presented with an opportunity to know more about the plans and many of them have been affirmative too.

“To date, we have hosted 56 guided tours of the former golf course land and a further nine events at which local residents have had the opportunity to speak to members of the project team and learn more about the plans. We are pleased that more than 4,600 attendees have come along to one of our consultation events, with the overwhelming majority really excited about the plans and keen to see the community benefits delivered as soon as possible,” Bolton told the Telegraph.

Meanwhile, the opposers have claimed that AELTC lied to them about the plans. Two MPs for Putney and Wimbledon, Labour’s Fleur Anderson and Conservative Stephen Hammond have spoken on the behalf of residents. While Anderson suggests that AELTC works on their Roehampton site, Hammond says the development is “too big”.

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