UPDATE: Victory for Village
Council at last recognises its folly
We're delighted that our pressure on the Tory council has paid off at last. Trafford has today (11th August 2009) released a press notice giving details of a new scheme. It seems that at last they've caved in to common sense and at the third attempt have produced a scheme that is both priced appropriately and allows for pay as you attend.
We will leave this page as a salutory reminder of what happens when council's don't consult residents, businesses or even the local councillors.
The Village Parking Scheme in Trafford Park was intended to facilitate access and egress for supporters on match-days from Trafford Park Village. The council argued that providing designated parking bays reserved for permit-holders and patrols from wardens would improve things for fans and businesses alike. There were assurances that the permits were not intended as revenue generating and pricing would simply cover costs. Whether it was greed, incompetence or a missing decimal point that has led to Trafford Park village being deserted on match days we may never find out. However, the £175 initially imposed on the cost of a season-permit to park in the Trafford Park village area has turned this traditional parking refuge for supporters into a deserted landscape on match-days.
The Trafford Park Hotel is arguably the most beautiful building in Trafford Park. It is symbolic of a time when Trafford Park was the largest and most productive industrial area in the world. Since the clearance and the depopulation of the residential areas of Trafford Park, the pubs in Trafford Park Village have relied on the football trade and out of town HGV drivers at the end of their shift for a large proportion of their custom. The introduction of season-permits for match-days has seen a decline in HGV parking-up in the village. And the reduction has not been confined to match-days; understandably, many of the drivers have been unfamiliar with United's fixture list and have avoided the risk of being caught out.
The hotel survived the bombing of
Trafford Park. Sadly the Trafford Park Hotel is now closed and the 'to let' signs are up.
It would be good to believe that the Trafford Park Hotel will be
there to thrive off the new trade from Media City. However, the chances of its reopening as a pub cannot be enhanced by the loss of match-day trade.
The remaining pub is the Village Inn whose landlord Paul Downes was completely exasperated by the actions of the council saying "Several of our regular lorry driver customers left the area before I had a chance to explain the permit scheme..We had to deal with angry customers every match from victims of the scheme from all over the country." He wrote to the council in October saying that he could only surmise that Trafford wanted the Village Inn to close, the same as the Trafford Park Hotel!
Paul's strong words do seem to have some effect in that Trafford acknowledged they had overpriced the scheme and reduced the permit price to £110. But how did they expect the lost custom to know that? Predictably, the reduced price failed to attract new permit holders.
The council are now looking at permits for single matches and we'll update this site when we hear definite news.
With a capacity of over 76,000 the largest in the premier league and supporters from all over the world, the pressure on parking for supporters is acute. Some supporters have taken advantage of the landscaped grass verges on the edge of the parking scheme. Others have inevitably sought out parking in residential areas. We've noticed that match-day parking is encroaching in an ever-increasing area. Davyhulme Road provides an indication with supporters parking ever further along its length.
This is a scheme that has failed miserably. It has blighted the relationship between the council and businesses, angered visitors to our borough and put further irritation onto residents already fed up with the weekly loss of parking to supporters.
It could be argued that it was difficult for the council to set the correct market price but they already offer season-tickets for match-day parking at the (much nearer to the ground} Trafford Town Hall. The price for a season ticket there is £110 and is a revenue generator. So it took three months to bring the price down to an amount they were already setting elsewhere
Gorse Hill Councillors will be pressing for an early decision on next season as we cannot accept a repeat of this fiasco.
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