Wimbledon expansion plans get approved
The proposal will help the All England Club build 39 new courts
Wimbledon Championships, 2016
Image Credit: BPI / Panoramic
Wimbledon‘s expansion plans, which would help them build 39 new tennis courts on protected open land situated opposite the current tournament site, have been approved.
Once the development work is complete, all qualifying matches, which are currently held at Roehampton, will be held onsite.
Local residents and politicians had been opposing the move for sometime and could still apply for a review of the decision.
“Clearly we are very, very pleased – it has been a long journey to this point,” All England Club chair Deborah Jevans told BBC Sport. “Equally there is a journey to go through before we start to build. Our ambition, if everything falls into place, is that we could see tennis balls being hit on that site between 2030 and 2033.”
Among the benefits promised to the local community are a new 23-acre public park and a minimum of seven of the grass courts to be made available to the local community for the weeks after the Grand Slam tournament.
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