Generating investment for the local area
The AELTC and The Championships already generate significant and quantifiable socio-economic benefit to both Merton and Wandsworth, London, and the UK as a whole. The AELTC is one of the largest employers in this part of London with c.6,000 people employed during The Championships.

The AELTC and The Championships are of national and international importance. Our annual event generates a TV audience of approximately 1.2 billion people and attracts circa 550,000 visitors to the grounds throughout the tournament and around 80,000 during the remainder of the year. This generates a significant income, much of which is reinvested in the local area.

A new AELTC Park

At a more specific level, the project will provide a 27-acres of new parkland. The AELTC Parkland, known as the northern parkland and the southern parkland, were previously part of the private member’s golf course, which will make it one of the largest areas of private land in London to be opened to public access. The AELTC Parklands will be directly managed by AELTC and will provide year-round public access around the Wimbledon Park Lake for the first time, other than very short periods during the Championships. Park opening and closing hours will be similar to those of Wimbledon Park. Additional benefits of the park include:

Significantly increasing direct public access to open, recreational space.
Providing a restored historic landscape complete with best practice management, maintenance and long-term stewardship.
Removing the golf course infrastructure and restoring and conserving the 18th Century features including the restoration of the lake’s historic outline, daylighting culverted water courses, revealing obscured views, conserving veteran trees and preserving their genetic material through a tree propagation programme.

Supporting local biodiversity

The site is a Site of Nature Conservation Interest and includes a large number of trees (and other vegetation) which provide important habitats and biodiversity. The proposal offers the opportunity to repair sections of the landscape and significantly enhance ecology/biodiversity value. Improvements to the Lake also support this ambition.

As part of the proposal, we will also double the number of trees on the golf course through the retention/ protection of veteran trees and significant new planting - giving a net gain of 1,000 important new genetically resilient trees. The proposals will also provide net improvement to biodiversity through enhancement works to the site, the Lake and potentially within Wimbledon Park.

Improving the Church Road connection

The proposed updates to Church Road will:

• Bring some relief to local residential streets by diverting non-essential traffic away from the area.
• Create a safer environment which mitigates threats within crowded spaces and is in support of prevailing guidance.
• Encourage healthier modes of transport such as cycling and walking, and reduce dependency on cars
• Improve the appearance and safety of Church Road year round
• Invest in traffic reduction and calming
• Link safely the two halves of the event space during the Championships
• Reduce crowding and increase the standoff distance on each side of the Grounds effectively away from the main gates at peak times.
• Restrict vehicle access to these crowded areas during The Championships.

These plans will form part of the planning application, with any re-design works subject to an S.278 Agreement. It is anticipated that proposed temporary closure of Church Road will be secured via a Traffic Management Order (TMO).