Plans for Wimbledon's first ever double mega-basement complete with cinema, sauna, games room and a gym have been submitted to Merton Council.

Property developer Kamran Mahmood has applied to build a two-storey mega-basement as part of a complete redevelopment of his £2.8m home in Wimbledon Village.

The luxury digdown proposed for Somerset Road, opposite the All England Lawn Tennis Club, includes an open plan kitchen and living room below a newly-built neo-Georgian house.

Mr Mahmood, who wants to build his dream family home, said: "The reason for the development is the current house has been extended twice and it's quite a mish-mash of corridors and doorways.

"When I bought the house in 2007 I thought I would renovate it but then we found out the cost would be almost the same as a new-build so I made a decision to get a better design in line with buildings on the prominent road.

"There's not much expanding that you can do. The plot narrows quite a lot and there's only a certain amount you can extend backwards so the natural solution was to build downwards."

The proposed mega-basement includes a 1,750 sq m basement with an open plan kitchen and living room, gym, shower room, utility room and lower terrace.

A further 1,500 sq m sub-basement would accommodate a cinema room, sauna and games room.

Concerned neighbour Stephen Martin said: "To remove the soil alone would be a major task and would entail a continuous flow of lorry loads each and every day for nine months or more. Disruption would be horrendous for the neighbourhood."

Worried the development would add to heavy lorry traffic during the Wimbledon Championships, Mr Martin also raised concerns about disruption to a visitor's path adjacent to the house where Andy Murray's gold post box is located.

Mr Mahmood said: "Obviously we are going to try our best to minimise any disruption. I'm in the building industry myself so I'm very concerned about how this will affect the area as well as the building and water tables so I have got engineering reports and tests done and if it turns out it's not a practical thing to do we won't do it."

If approved by Merton Council, he said work was likely to begin after the Wimbledon Championships, to minimise road disruption.

Your Local Guardian:

Deluxe: plan for the double mega-basement, complete with cinema, gym and sauna

The council introduced its first ever basement planning policy in April to deal with growing numbers of digdown applications, but has not explicitly ruled out double basements.

Applicants for significant basement extensions have to pay experts to assess impacts on drainage, flooding, ground water conditions and structural stability before excavating.

Two-storey and three-storey basements were recently banned by Kensington and Chelsea Council after it received more than 100 applications for mega-basements, raising concerns about disruption to water tables.

All proposed excavations in that borough have been suspended pending a ruling on an application referred to the Government's Planning Inspectorate.

To see the Somerset Road plans, enter reference number 14/P2644 on the council's planning website.

Are you concerned about basement excavations in your neighbourhood? Comment below, or email louisa.clarence@london.newsquest.co.uk.