Wrexham’s Kop expansion plans challenged over parking concerns

Alec Doyle, Local Democracy Reporter

Plans to increase the initial capacity of Wrexham AFC’s proposed Kop stand to 7,750 have been challenged by the council’s highways department.

In response to the application to increase the initial capacity of the stand by 2,250 fans – a move which would give the SToK Cae Ras ground an overall capacity of 17,250 – highways officers have said the local transport infrastructure as it stands could not currently sustain the parking impact on matchdays.

It has said that the data provided by the club to measure the impact is wrong – revealing that on matchdays the original Kop, which would house 5,000 fans – would leave around 1,300 parking spaces unused around the ground.

The additional capacity would increase parking demand by more than 1,800 – far more than the area can cope with.

“Overall occupancy of available off-street parking on matchdays was recorded as 1,840 vehicles shortly before kick-off on matchdays,” the Local Highways Authority (LHA) stated in a report to Wrexham County Borough Council’s Planning Committee.

“That equates to approximately 59% utilisation with around 1,330 spaces available at that time.

“However, the Transport Assessment and Technical Note assume a combined vehicle occupancy of 2.4 persons per-car. Based on these assumptions, the cumulative additional vehicle trips associated with the consented scheme (5,500 spectators) and the proposed development (2,250 spectators) would be in the region of 1,841 vehicles.

“This exceeds the 1,330 off-street spaces identified as available at peak time and suggests that additional demand would need to be accommodated elsewhere, including on the surrounding
highway network.”

On-street parking surveys from this season show that capacity is already maxed out – meaning there is nowhere for the additional traffic to go.

“The LHA concludes that the applicant has not provided a sufficiently robust evidence base to demonstrate that the highway and parking impacts of the proposed development would be acceptable,” said the report.

“The application, as currently submitted, does not demonstrate that the additional parking and highway impacts arising from the proposed increase in stadium capacity can be satisfactorily mitigated.

“It recommends a robust cumulative Transport Assessment and parking impact analysis be provided before the acceptability of the proposal, or any associated mitigation package, can be properly considered.”

This is not the first time that the planning process has slowed Wrexham AFC’s expansion plans. When owners Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds initially tried to get their Kop proposal off the ground Rob expressed his frustration in the club’s Welcome to Wrexham documentary at delays caused by planning bureaucracy.

The club has also been criticised by Wrexham Council’s Planning Committee for the number of retrospective applications it has previously submitted.

Cllr Dave Bithell said that the club needed to respect the planning process.

Everybody should respect the red tape,” he said. “The football club are not exempt from that, like any other business.”

Wrexham Council Chief Executive Alwyn Jones said while there were some matters for planning to address, the council remaines committed to working with the club to help with solutions wherever possible.

“We want to proactively and positively work with the football club,” he said. “They do great things, so we want to work with them positively as we would any business that wants to engage.”