Last Updated on 29 July 2025
There are two court cases between Save Wimbledon Park (SWP) and The All England Lawn Tennis Club. One relates to planning – seeking Judicial Review (JR) of the decision of the GLA to grant planning permission for the AELTC development on the former golf course land in Wimbledon Park. Those proceedings were heard in the High Court on 8 and 9 July 2025. However the decision handed down in July 2025 did not support our case.
The other case relates to the legal status of the land. SWP argue that the land is protected by a statutory trust for public recreation. The AELTC disagree with this and have started High Court proceedings to decide the point.
At a recent hearing in the statutory trust proceedings, the Court decided that SWP is a suitable body to act as a Representative Defendant i.e. capable of representing the interests of all those in the community interested in arguing that the statutory trust exists. For good measure, the Court decided that the Attorney General, as guardian of the public interest, should be joined into the proceedings.
Normally, cases have to join a queue to come on for trial, and delays are quite common. In our case, however, the Court was persuaded that a degree of expedition is justified. The upshot is that the trial has been fixed to start in mid-January 2026, with a time estimate of 6 days. It remains the case that the AELTC has agreed to cover SWP’s legal costs of acting as a Representative Defendant in this case.
SWP is dependent on crowdfunding for the Judicial Review and although that has now taken place we need to be prepared for any further costs if there were to be an appeal. A well attended public meeting took place on the 16 June in St Mark’s Church in Wimbledon Town Centre, where the campaign’s supporters were updated on the progress of both court cases. SWP’s crowdfunding through the public CrowdJustice site has raised the sum of £140,000 from over 1300 donors.
For more information about the campaign and fuller report on the Judicial Review go to https://www.savewimbledonpark.org/post/swp-success-in-defending-costs-protection-for-its-legal-battle
