AELTC's attempted law change rejected by House of Lords
- wpramembers
- 27 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Late on November 3rd, Lord Gus O’Donnell, a director of the All England Lawn Tennis Club
(AELTC), was forced to drop his proposed amendment 250 to the Planning and Infrastructure
Bill after receiving strong criticism from peers of all political parties.
The amendment sought retrospectively to remove 45 years’ worth of public rights over open spaces, effectively favouring private landowners in general and AELTC in particular. It would have undone 150 years of statutory protection for public land.
The move means that Save Wimbledon Park’s legal challenge, scheduled for the High Court in January 2026, remains on track. The amendment would have validated Merton Council’s 1986 lease and 1993 sale of the 73 acre former golf course to AELTC without properly consulting the
community, ending the community’s case before it reached court.
“Amendment 250 seems an undesirable bit of retrospective legislation designed to enable the
All England Lawn Tennis Club not to have to negotiate fairly with the people it is disadvantaging
as a result of its plans,” commented Lord Lucas (Conservative).
The full proceedings can be seen on Hansard here, from 21:30 onwards:
e748a43149d2/LordsChamber
Kieran McCarthy at Putney News has provided an excellent summary of the debate: https://putney.news/2025/11/04/wimbledon-park-amendment-abandoned-after-peerscondemn-erosion-of-green-space-protection/
The information above has been provided by Save Wimbledon Park: https://www.savewimbledonpark.org/