About WPCT

Wimbledon Park Community Trust (WPCT)

The Trust was incorporated in October 2013 and subsequently registered as a charity.

The objects of the charity are:

'The promotion of the benefits of the inhabitants of Wimbledon Park and the neighbourhood thereof (hereinafter called the area of benefit) without distinction, by the advancement of education and provision of facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation and leisure time occupation, with the object of improving the conditions of life for the said inhabitants.'

The Trust has a lease (99 years from 2013) from the London Borough of Merton, on the space known as Wimbledon Park Hall (*1) including the adjoining Arthur’s Café at 170 Arthur Road. This provides an extremely valuable Community asset for all Wimbledon Park Residents.

The main income of the Trust is derived from renting the hall and café. Since formation, the Charity has provided nealy £80,000 in grants to local charities and projects. These include:
St Raphaels Hospice, Shooting Star Childrens Hospice, The Walk and Talk Movement, The Firefighters Charity, London Air Ambulance, Merton Music Foundation, Wimbledon Foodbank, Faith in Action, Wimbledon Museum (of local history), Unique Talent, Table Tennis Tables in Wimbledon Park, Mayor of Merton Charities Fund, Wimbledon Park Residents’ Association and Brooklands Allotments.

Grants
We would like to encourage local residents to contact us if they feel they can identify a person, organisation or project that would benefit from our support. It can either be a project that would benefit the local area or an organisation that is involved in work that would be of benefit to residents in the local area. We are particularly interested in the idea of supporting an apprentice who lives in the local area.

General Guidelines for applying for grants.
Trustees have total discretion on awarding grants.
All applications must give proper detail of the intended use of the grant money and what the ultimate benefit/outcome will, or is expected to, be.
No grants will be given for general revenue purposes, only for specific or capital spending projects.

Can you help?
The Trust is run by a team of Trustees who are all volunteers and who have been there since the beginning. Succession is now a key issue and it is now the wish of the current Trustees to encourage new Trustees to join the existng board and help and eventually take over the day to day running of the Hall and Café and other related administrative responsibilities. In particular, currently, we are looking for someone to help with Hall bookings and related tasks.
If you have any interest in helping to secure the future of this wonderful local asset and have any background in management, maintenance, Charity work, and like working with people, please get in touch with

Iain Simpson, the Chairman.
Email: iainsimpson@imi-consulting.com. Mobile:07836361782
or 56 Home Park Road, Wimbledon Park, SW19 7HN

(The Accounts of the Trust can be found on the Accounts website page)

(1) The Opening of Wimbledon Park Hall by Lord Ahmad:

Wimbledon Park Hall was officially opened by Lord Ahmad on Saturday, 26th April 2014 at 3.30pm.

In his speech, Lord Ahmad mentioned his involvement as a Ward Councillor in many of the meetings with the Council and developer over the years. He emphasised that there were always differences of opinion but that overall discussions were largely good humoured and relationships well maintained. He commended the tenacity of the developer and the WPRA in holding on to the original vision.

Lord Ahmad also mentioned that he felt privileged to make a speech recently (27th February) in the House of Lords on the matter of Community Assets and mentioned Wimbledon Park and the WPRA as an outstanding example of the Community and Council working together to build a community asset for the future.

The opening coincided closely with the time of year the decision was made by the Council eleven years ago, to close the old Village Hall in Arthur Road, on the basis that they considered it ‘surplus to requirements’. Certainly, nobody else did!

After months of negotiations with the Council Leader at that time, Andrew Judge, the Wimbledon Park Residents’ Association and Shaukat Hussein, the developer, put together a business plan with a building design and costs provided by Husband and Carpenter, Architects. This was ultimately accepted by the Council and a Planning Brief went out to tender in late 2004, incorporating the requirement for a new Hall and Café.

As they say, the rest is history – but a very long one! Many years and various hurdles intervened before construction started in 2012. Those included a very delayed contract signing; the financial collapse in 2007/8 which led to banks withdrawing funding for development projects; a complaint lodged by the WPRA with the Local Government Ombudsman against LBM; a considerably revised planning application and a long search for funding which eventually brought about a joint venture.

However, we are delighted to say that the finished product is a great success, due to the quality of contractor and the excellent cooperation of the Council, and smooth project management by their Head of Projects on the fitting out provided by the Council.

The WPRA has been very fortunate to have the invaluable help from a local Architect, David Watkins, who voluntarily has guided the project on the Association’s behalf for the last five years right up to completion. Without this sort of help the Association would have struggled to manage its interest in the project.

The Committee members of the WPRA and many other local residents who volunteered their time, worked hard over the years, to raise funds in anticipation of taking on the new Hall. Approximately £20,000 was raised through the holding of three fairs in Wimbledon Park. These funds have provided us with the ability to deal with setting up expenses and cash flow in the early months of operation.

A company limited by guarantee was formed, to take on the peppercorn rent (99 year) lease from the Council, and it is now a properly registered charity (The Wimbledon Park Community Trust). The board is made up of representatives of the WPRA committee, the developer, our Architect adviser and one of our local Councillors.

I am pleased to say that we have had a lot of inquiries for use of the hall and have several regular hirers and a large number of bookings for weekend social events.