Wimbledon planning struggles sum up Britain’s sclerotic NIMBY stagnation
Wimbledon needs to expand to remain top of the world, and the benefits will be felt by the local community – yet planners seem intent on stopping it happening.
One regularly made, but unfair, criticism of major sporting events is that they bring only temporary, tangential benefits to their local area.
A test match at the Oval, by this argument, brings a five-day boost to the pubs near the Harleyford Road, but fails to deliver a lasting impact. Take a look at Surrey’s community efforts, however, and it’s clear that those hefty bar takings are invariably being used for the benefit of the people who live closest to the venue. It’s a similar story across London, from Wembley to Lord’s and – thanks to planning before the Games – the Olympic site in Stratford.
One organisation which certainly does more than most is the All England Lawn Tennis Club, which cycles the cash made during the Wimbledon championships into the game across the country.
Only in Britain would a plan to open a new public park be given short shrift because it might affect the apparent ‘openness’ of a golf club which has been closed to the public for a century
That summer spectacular needs a touch-up and an expansion; hence the grand plans the All England have developed for the land across the road on what has been for more than a hundred years an exclusive, members only golf club. Any benefit to the All England would find its way, in time, to the local community and the wider sport.
As is the way in Britain, going from fully-formed ideas to spades in the ground remains a timescale best measured in eons. A breakthrough came a month or so ago when Merton council, one of the two affected by the development along with Wandsworth, gave a thumbs up to the Wimbledon project.
That plan – which includes a new showcourt draped in greenery, public and private courts and a new, 23-acre public park accessible to all and sundry throughout the eleven months of the year that the Championships are not on – however ran into a potential speed bump on Monday night, when Wandsworth planners recommend the project be rejected on the grounds the new showcourt in particular would challenge the ‘openness’ of the current site.
Only in Britain would a plan to open a new public park be given short shrift because it might affect the apparent ‘openness’ of a golf club which has been closed to the public for a century. There is hope that Councillors take a different view from the planners and – predictably – the local MPs.
Britain’s NIMBY culture is an enemy of progress. It must be smashed.