Please see this letter from Rolfe Judd to Merton Council dated 7th July 2023, containing AELTC response (Barrister's Opinion) concerning a recent Supreme Court judgment in the case of Day v Shropshire from March 2023.
"AELTC – Cross Boundary Hybrid Planning Applications (LBM ref: 21/P2900 and LBW ref: 2021/3609)
for the provision of new tennis facilities and infrastructure (including new tennis courts, a new show
court, a new public park, environmental and heritage improvement works) at the Wimbledon Park Golf
Course
We write on behalf of our client (the All England Lawn Tennis Ground Plc – the AELTC) in response to representations made by the Wimbledon Park Resident’s Association (alongside other groups) to the London Boroughs of Merton and Wandsworth (LBM and LBW) concerning a recent Supreme Court judgment in the case of Day v Shropshire from March 2023 (the Day judgment).
In their representations the Wimbledon Park Resident’s Association assert that our client’s planning applications for the Wimbledon Park Golf Course bear similarities to the Day judgment. That judgment concerned a housing development proposed on part of a former public recreation ground and planning permission was quashed because the Supreme Court concluded that the land was held on statutory trust and the local planning authority had failed to take this into consideration when determining the planning
application.
In contrast to that case, our client’s planning applications relate to a private member’s golf course, which has been private land for over 100 years. The golf course land has never been public open land and at no time has it been held under statutory trust for public recreation. Furthermore, it is also evident that the golf course has always been treated as a distinct land parcel separate from Merton’s Wimbledon Park, the adjacent public park.
To assist the local planning authorities in their consideration of this matter, we enclose the following:
1. A Summary Response to the submissions made by the Wimbledon Park Resident’s Association in relation to the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Day v Shropshire from March 2023 – prepared by Russell Harris KC and Jonathan Karas KC.
2. The Opinion of Jonathan Karas KC on whether the Wimbledon Park Golf Course is the subject of a statutorily imposed trust."...read more