is stadium expansion under jeopardy

[Lord Bracknell]

everybody knows the main issue at Falmer is the Bennet's Field, which was never intended to be a car park, its f***ed up the a27, the busses, the slip road to the UNI.

i would have thought any application for extra seats has zero chance

Any application to Brighton & Hove City Council for extra seats would certainly have to include transport and parking arrangements that took into account the FACT that Bennett's Field isn't permanently available as a car parking area.

 

[Simster]

What are they going to do with Bennett's Field site when the 3 years approval is up?

 

[Hunting 784561]

I heard a whisper (no official source) that the club were looking at buying a parcel of land to allow an additional exit from Bennetts Field, which would suggest it is part of their plans for the future.

 

[Notters]

What are they going to do with Bennett's Field site when the 3 years approval is up?

I thought it was 2 years?

 

[Ken Newbury]

I've never been dropped off, but I've been picked up several times by the entrance to Stanmer Park. It's at most a ten minute walk from the stadium (and I'm not the fastest walker these days) and my wife says there's been no delays getting there, and we have none getting back (she turns round in the park entrance and we go back to the traffic lights by the new flyover).

No maybe she isn't delayed personally, but your wife along with everyone else who picks up at the Stanmer Park entrance, cause delays to everyone trying to get out of the University car parks (how do I know? because i'm always caught in the traffic jam which ultimately started with your wife picking you up!)

Why is it that everyone who carrys out an act always says "I don't cause any delays doing this, it's only one of me and that can't impact on anyone" and never consider that collectively they, and the other 100 people doing it as well, do actually cause significant impact on others?

The same with dropping off or picking up near the university slip roads, maybe one or two people doing it doesn't have an impact, but you get 100 people doing it in a fifteen minute window then that will (and indeed does) cause significant impact on the traffic and contributes to the tailbacks.

 

[Brovion]

No maybe she isn't delayed personally, but your wife along with everyone else who picks up at the Stanmer Park entrance, cause delays to everyone trying to get out of the University car parks (how do I know? because i'm always caught in the traffic jam which ultimately started with your wife picking you up!)

Why is it that everyone who carrys out an act always says "I don't cause any delays doing this, it's only one of me and that can't impact on anyone" and never consider that collectively they, and the other 100 people doing it as well, do actually cause significant impact on others?

The same with dropping off or picking up near the university slip roads, maybe one or two people doing it doesn't have an impact, but you get 100 people doing it in a fifteen minute window then that will (and indeed does) cause significant impact on the traffic and contributes to the tailbacks.

I didn't say "I don't cause delays" I said she wasn't delayed either coming or going, there is a difference. (Although there's never been any traffic in the road when she's executed her three-point turn.)

Having said that - I agree with you. It's ok when there's only one or two of us doing it (which has been the case), but like you say if 100 suddenly decided to turn up at the same time it would be chaos. So where should the kiss 'n' drop area(s) be then? DON'T say "nowhere - cos you shouldn't do it" because people ARE going to do it, the same way as no one is 'supposed' to drive to the game and park 'n' walk from places like Coldean.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

A lot of the problems would be solved if Bennett's Field was converted into a combined Taxi Rank and Shuttle Bus terminus.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

No maybe she isn't delayed personally, but your wife along with everyone else who picks up at the Stanmer Park entrance, cause delays to everyone trying to get out of the University car parks (how do I know? because i'm always caught in the traffic jam which ultimately started with your wife picking you up!)

Why is it that everyone who carrys out an act always says "I don't cause any delays doing this, it's only one of me and that can't impact on anyone" and never consider that collectively they, and the other 100 people doing it as well, do actually cause significant impact on others?

The same with dropping off or picking up near the university slip roads, maybe one or two people doing it doesn't have an impact, but you get 100 people doing it in a fifteen minute window then that will (and indeed does) cause significant impact on the traffic and contributes to the tailbacks.

The post-match wheelchair accessible minibus service that returns disabled fans from the stadium to Car Park 5 makes the journey back to the Sussex University site by using the road that passes the Stanmer Park entrance. A congregation of cars waiting to pick up friends and family at Stanmer Park would certainly cause delays - and leave disabled supporters waiting longer at the stadium for the second and third trips of the minibus.

I very much hope that the suggestion that Stanmer Park entrance might be an acceptable post-match pick-up point doesn't catch on.

 

[Dave the OAP]

Can I ask those in the know. the bit of road by the new flyover that leads to the Falmer School tunnel.....I notice it had been widened and had what looks like drop off bays painetd on it. wasnt this meant to be the drop off point, with people comeing south, driving past the stadium on teh a27 and then turning off before the flyover to Brighton, and coming north turning right under the new flyover ( by the stanmer park entrance)?

Is this not supposed to be the drop off place.

BTW speaking for one that drives along Village way North to get to esporta, one of the bottleknecks is people who park on the double yellows on teh left hand side of the road ( heading towards the UNI) this means people have to swerve around cars and vans and busses cant pass them....so causing jams. If stewards and police did their jobs, this would alleviate some of the issues.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Can I ask those in the know. the bit of road by the new flyover that leads to the Falmer School tunnel.....I notice it had been widened and had what looks like drop off bays painetd on it. wasnt this meant to be the drop off point, with people comeing south, driving past the stadium on teh a27 and then turning off before the flyover to Brighton, and coming north turning right under the new flyover ( by the stanmer park entrance)?

Is this not supposed to be the drop off place?

No.

That bit of road has been widened to provide access to the new City and County Record Office ("The Keep") that is being built on the Woollards Field site. It's nothing to do with the stadium - although there were earlier plans to have a stadium car park on the Aldridge Academy playing fields that could have been reached via the same little tunnel.

 

[Dave the OAP]

No.

That bit of road has been widened to provide access to the new City and County Record Office ("The Keep") that is being built on the Woollards Field site. It's nothing to do with the stadium - although there were earlier plans to have a stadium car park on the Aldridge Academy playing fields that could have been reached via the same little tunnel.

But surely that is an ideal spot for drop off then people just walk up to the stadium on the bottom of Falmer School walkway

 

[B.W.]

everybody knows the main issue at Falmer is the Bennet's Field, which was never intended to be a car park, its f***ed up the a27, the busses, the slip road to the UNI.

i would have thought any application for extra seats has zero chance

What was Bennet's Field supposed to be then? A well-used facility now (always full), so I just can't see what else it would have been...

Also, you seem rather too pessimistic to me re the application for more seats...

Finally, what has Bennet's Field got to do with cars / taxis using the A27 slip road as a drop off point? Why would cars going to BF drop-off!?

In summary, you are talking nonsense...

 

[B.W.]

I think DtG is referring to the apparent chaos that the operation of Bennett's Field C/P and the 650 cars cause on the surrounding roads, not a post-match 1901 bumper car demonstration. Some disruption to existing traffic flows was predicted by the club's transport consultants in the BF planning application but they assumed (or were told) that the arriving and leaving BP traffic would be staggered over a period of time (hrs) and concluded that disruption at the intersection and Village Way could be managed. It seems to me that, at evening games, large amounts of car traffic for the stadium (ie mostly BF car park) is actually arriving right in the middle of the rush hour together with the P&R buses (start at 17.30) and all the coaches - ie the consultants' assumption/brief is incorrect.
Hopefully things will improve when the road and Village Way traffic light changes are completed at the end of the month but I'm not holding my breath.
Negative though it sounds I'm with Dave on this and don't think an extension application has a cat in hells chance until the transport arrangements for 22,500 are shown to be working satisfactorily and in accordance with the conditions under which the stadium planning consent was granted.

Agree that transport needs to be sorted, but blaming BF for idiots dropping off on the slip is clearly BS...

 

[Dave the OAP]

What was Bennet's Field supposed to be then? A well-used facility now (always full), so I just can't see what else it would have been...

Also, you seem rather too pessimistic to me re the application for more seats...

Finally, what has Bennet's Field got to do with cars / taxis using the A27 slip road as a drop off point? Why would cars going to BF drop-off!?



In summary, you are talking nonsense...

I was alluding to the fact that the main issue with the stadium is the jams around it, in some way caused by 600 odd cars trying to get up the slip road, that was never planned for. the field was just that and would have remained a field...it was never ours to do anything with until whoever owns it allowed devlopment...I thought you would have known that ?

take away the 600 cars and this will allow the freeflow of busses and taxis.....at the moment, the feedback with 22,500 in the stadium is that it is a nightmare to get cars away from the stadium, and also Woodingdean residents are pissed off that for night games, it takes half an hour to get up teh slip road and pass the stadium ( from teh horses mouth) so that is a buch of objectors to extra seats straight away!

 

[B.W.]

I heard a whisper (no official source) that the club were looking at buying a parcel of land to allow an additional exit from Bennetts Field, which would suggest it is part of their plans for the future.

That IS the obvious answer for BF...

 

[Mr Burns]

Yes, yes it does. That's my argument against it!

No, no it doesn't. How can you delay a row of traffic that isn't moving anyway. I suggest you stand and watch these car "stopping" and letting people out and then state how it delays traffic. How do you further delay traffic that is at a standstill, 5 days a week at rush hour?? We are talking about the A27 slip road here. Take a look at it tonight, tomorrow, Thursday etc and you will see a row of traffic going back to the coldean slip road. Its a shit road layout, it has been for years, well before the stadium was built.

 

[Mr Burns]

Would that car be on the road at that time, if they didn't have someone to drop off?

What?!?

So you just want to ban anyone from being dropped off in a car?

In that case the extra buses and coaches would be delaying traffic then by driving up the A27 slip road, maybe they should ban them from the roads as well and make everyone walk or arrive by air then

 

[B.W.]

I was alluding to the fact that the main issue with the stadium is the jams around it, in some way caused by 600 odd cars trying to get up the slip road, that was never planned for. the field was just that and would have remained a field...it was never ours to do anything with until whoever owns it allowed devlopment...I thought you would have known that ?

take away the 600 cars and this will allow the freeflow of busses and taxis.....at the moment, the feedback with 22,500 in the stadium is that it is a nightmare to get cars away from the stadium, and also Woodingdean residents are pissed off that for night games, it takes half an hour to get up teh slip road and pass the stadium ( from teh horses mouth) so that is a buch of objectors to extra seats straight away!

No, I didn't know that... sorry... BF is NOT the problem... the single exit is the problem...

 

[B.W.]

Why not just get a traffic copper to actually do his/her job and police the slip road?

 

[Rookie]

Until they sort the carnage that is midweek P&R (Saturday games seem to work better because of the availability of more bendy buses) expansion should be the last thing on the clubs mind