• Development on Wimbledon Park will add 39 new courts
• Local residents and MP vow to continue opposition

It appears to be game, set and match for the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) in its lengthy battle to build 39 new courts on Wimbledon Park after the Greater London Authority recommended that the project should be approved.

The proposals have been deeply controversial, with local residents warning of 10 years of disruption as well as the creation of a huge “tennis industrial complex” that would lie silent for much of the year. However, officers at the GLA recommended on Thursday that the deputy mayor should grant conditional planning permission at a public hearing on Friday 27 September.