For this week’s edition of ‘Nimby Watch’, we’re off to Wimbledon, which, according to Nimbys, should not have any more tennis courts…
Where are we off to this week? Wimbledon, plush south west London suburb and the home of international tennis.
And what are they trying to build there? More tennis courts, LOL? Er, yes, actually, that’s exactly what they’re trying to build.
So, not houses then? Not houses on this occasion, no.
Oh. This is not a scheme that’s going to do much for the housing crisis, I’ll admit, but it is supposed to shore up a major bit of Brand Britain. ‘To ensure Wimbledon remains the world’s pre-eminent tennis tournament’, reports The Guardian, ‘the All England Club has argued that it needs a third 8,000-seat show court on the grounds of the old Wimbledon Park golf club, as well as 38 other grass courts that would be used for qualifying and practice’. The move would mean that, like other Grand Slams, the entire tournament can take place on a single site.
But what about the golf! The course in question closed in 2019, which is very sad for those locals who are left with only the Royal Wimbledon Golf Club, the Wimbledon Common Golf Club and the London Scottish Golf Club to choose from within walking distance, I’ll admit.
Okay, but we’ll leave up to the readers to decide if we have finally found a worse use-case for urban land than golf, shall we? Actually, on this occasion, we’ll be leaving it up to Jules Pipe, the Deputy Mayor of London. The scheme has already been approved by Merton council, rejected by neighbouring Wandsworth, approved again last week by GLA planning officers, and then sent up to the Mayor. The Mayor recused himself on the grounds he’d already expressed support for the plans – he has an opinion, so is not allowed to have an opinion – and handed it to his deputy. Pipe makes his decision tomorrow.
Look this is all very fascinating, but I’m still not clear why it gets a column. Because of the headline on that Guardian story: ‘”Let them arrest me”: 99-year-old may chain herself to Wimbledon grounds.’ The not quite centenarian in question is very slightly famous too, which helps: Thelma Ruby has been in Coronation Street and worked with both Orson Welles and Anita Dobson.
Big fan of golf, is she? Actually, she’s objecting on ‘environmental grounds’, which seems to mean that some trees will be cut down. ‘This beautiful view I get when I look out of my window is not only going to be a building site, but there are going to be polluting lorries passing my window every 10 minutes’, she told a public meeting organised by the Save Wimbledon Park campaign. ‘And we know, in this day and age, how important trees are. I look several times a day out of the window and enjoy my view. It gives me strength to carry on.’
‘In this day and age’? Your guess is as good as mine.
Who’d want to spend their last years on this earth watching construction work, though? You can see her point. I have nothing against Dame Thelma, a title of which she has been tragically robbed – but the undiluted ‘this will be worse for me personally and thus should not happen’-ness of her statement felt like an insight into the nature of Nimbyism nonetheless.
I assume it is not just one elderly lady against this. It is not: the meeting, apparently, was packed. In a shocking development, the local Liberal Democrat MP Paul Kohler doesn’t want it either (his argument involves a Supreme Court case, through which campaigners managed to stop some houses being built in Shrewsbury last year; stirring stuff).
Then there’s the Save Wimbledon Park campaign itself, whose representative gave a quote so bad I’m going to inflict it on the rest of you. ‘The GLA stage was always the third set, with Merton the first and Wandsworth the second’, he told the Guardian. ‘It’s not a done deal. We are just entering the third set tiebreak, and have plenty of aces to serve. The fourth set is the secretary of state and the fifth the courts.’
I thought these people didn’t even like tennis? I think they’re fine with tennis, they just don’t see why there should be any more tennis.
Okay, but not for the first time, this column is taking the side of a very rich business against some pensioners. I’m not sure that’s the winner you imagine. Possibly not. I have no idea if this plan is good, or if Wimbledon is stuffed without it or what. I would just note three things.
The first is that Wimbledon is a big British brand, and it’d be, on balance, bad to lose that because of some Nimbys.
The second is that the plan involves a new landscaped park, and thus would be more accessible to the public than not merely a closed golf course, but an open one, too.
And the third? Whatever the case for or against this development, ‘one 99-year-old likes that particular tree’ is not a thing any planning system should prioritise.
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