Lord Bracknell
On fire
The current spare capacity is at Brighton Racecourse. If an additional site is to be opened, it is expected to be "towards Lewes". There's no clear indication of exactly where, though.
Extract from the Transport Assessment, submitted by the Club:-
Existing Park and Ride Facilities
8.5.1 Condition 42 of the Stadium consent includes the requirement to confirm the capacity,
location and management of Park & Ride sites.
8.5.2 In this regard, the park and rides sites used in association with the Withdean Stadium,
namely Mill Road and Mithras House, have continued to be used in association with the
Amex Stadium. In addition, an application to formalise land areas at Brighton Racecourse
for use as a remote park and ride facility for up to 700 spaces was granted a temporary
consent in 2011. It is intended to renew this permission on a permanent basis.
8.5.3 Considering the existing park and ride facilities, the Mill Road and Mithras House park
and rides sites are currently operating at capacity. However, over the three survey days,
a maximum 284 vehicles was observed to use the park and ride facility at the
Racecourse, which is less than half the 700 spaces that are available.
8.5.4 Based on the average occupancy of vehicles visiting the Racecourse P&R site of around
2.7 supporters per vehicle, the full utilisation of this facility would cater for an additional
1,100 supporters.
8.5.5 Importantly, the surveys also established that the existing park and ride buses are not,
themselves, currently filled to capacity before travelling from the park and ride site to the
Stadium. As such, it is anticipated that very few additional park and ride bus movements
would be required to transport the additional supporters that could visit this park and
ride facility and, consequently, there would be very few, if any, additional movements on
the local highway network in the vicinity of the site network.
8.5.6 However, even if it were assumed that the full utilisation of this facility would require
further bus movements to transport the additional supporters, given that the park and
ride buses can accommodate over 80 supporters, the full utilisation would result in a
maximum of only 14 (i.e. 1100/80) additional park and ride bus journeys.
8.5.7 For robustness, the analysis has assumed that these additional bus movements would
occur between the Racecourse and Stadium as a result of the full utilisation of this park
and ride facility, and these are shown in Figure 6.
Potential Future Park and Ride Facility
8.5.8 In addition to the existing park and ride sites at Mithras House, Mill Road and the
Racecourse, it is also anticipated that, should in the future, parking no longer be
available at Bennett’s Field, an additional park and ride facility or facilities may be
required as part of the amendments to the transport strategy required in association with
an extension to the stadium.
8.5.9 In this regard, it is assumed that up to 1,000 additional park and ride spaces could be
provided, which based on the occupancy levels observed at the existing facilities, would
be likely to accommodate around 2,700 supporters.
8.5.10 We consider that delivery of an additional, appropriately located, park and ride site or
parking facility offers the clear potential to be able to reduce trip lengths and ensure only
a modest intensification of transport usage in close proximity to the Stadium. Delivery of
such a park and ride facility can either be effected by using an existing facility which has
consent for such an operation already or by securing an explicit planning permission to
deliver a new facility.
8.5.11 Notwithstanding that delivery of an additional park and ride facility may require a further
planning application, we consider that, in order to fully advise the highway authorities on
the current extension proposals, the analysis has assumed that an additional 1,000 space
park and ride facility would be provided, which would result in additional bus
movements.
8.5.12 Based on a capacity of 80 people per bus, an additional 2,700 supporters would require
34 bus movements. For the purpose of the analysis, it is assumed that half of these trips
would occur during the hour immediately before kick-off.
8.5.13 Given that such a facility would be likely to be provided towards Lewes, it is also
assumed these trips would originate from the east of the site and would be routed along
the A27.
8.5.14 Figure 7 shows the trips associated with bus movements that could occur as a result of
an additional 1,000 space park and ride site.
