Beeston residents got a chance to find out more about the proposed Elland Road Park and Ride scheme yesterday, Wednesday 17th July 2013.
The Park and Ride scheme is aimed at relieving city centre congestion and is proposed to be built at the far end of the site from the football ground. A car park will handle 425 cars with capacity in an overflow for a further 425 cars. Buses will then run into the city every ten minutes with a projected 6 minute journey time to Boar Lane.
The consultation took place at Beeston Library and follows a presentation to the Beeston Community Forum earlier this month. Staff from Leeds City Council and Metro were on hand to explain the plans and answer questions.
Staff were pleased with the attendance saying opinions were split for and against the scheme. However many residents were pleased to hear that the main traffic flow from the M621 will come via Junction 1 (B&Q) rather than doubling back along Elland Road from Junction 2 and adding to congestion at the Wesley Street junction.
The service will not operate on Saturday match days and will be limited to 7am – 7pm all year. It is expected that the car parks will have substantially emptied by the time supporters arrive for midweek matches.
Other objectors have stated that a Park and Ride scheme should be located further out. However these plans use land already in Council ownership. If the proposals are accepted and the scheme receives planning permission, the scheme can be built quickly with little disruption to Elland Road as the junction improvements have already been made to accommodate the new Police HQ. It is hoped the scheme will be operational in May 2014.
You can find out more information from the Council website and comment via the online questionnaire. Alternatively you can phone 0113 395 2586 or email highways@leeds.gov.uk. The consultation is open until Friday 2nd August.
I think the scheme seems good: getting cars off the road in the city centre has to be positive. And I can’t see what all the fuss/opposition is about… It’ll hardly generate more pollution than we already have with the M621. It won’t affect parking and traffic in our communities – if anything, it might alleviate it. But am I missing something?
Ed,
I think some of us are concerned that it’s a shortcut solution. It would have been better if the Park & Ride scheme had been located further out, say at Stourton. It seems strange to me to have a scheme that won’t operate on the busiest shopping day of the week on more than a quarter of each year’s Saturdays. It’s okay to say it can be quickly developed but this should have been sorted out 20 years ago – see York! How will the scheme be publicised given the Council’s general poor record at publicising facilities. How many people know there is already a Park & Ride facility in Leeds?
I would like to know what Leeds United are contributing to the scheme that undoubtedly benefits them. The increasing number of developments along Elland Road make sense in terms of using the land but there is no doubt they will cause disturbance to people in the vicinity. What benefit do the nearby residents get through a S106 payment? Better local bus services? Given proposals to introduce resident parking schemes with a cost to each resident in excess of £50 how about getting the S106 payment to subsidise this? It’s all very well using Beeston & Holbeck for the benefit of large parts of the city, many of which are more affluent than our ward but what local benefits are there?
Might work out well for weekday commuters, but its a risk, this consultancy looks like another tickbox affair by a well paid company to hand over an executive summary that says what the council wants to hear.
I don’t have a lot of faith in Leeds Councillors on parking, they’re rather shortsightedly planning on charging city centre parking on evenings and Sundays now. Evenings fair enough but Sundays, that’s going to kill off a lot of peoples jobs and swell White Rose Centres’ coffers.
Regarding Sunday parking I understand many of the big city centre shops aren’t too concerned as it’s their staff rather than customers who take advantage of free parking…
Am not convinced that’s the case, sure the big shops can take a few percent less footfall and get by, it’s the farmers market, independents, cafes, restuarants and bars that struggle in a fragile economy, a lot of them are close to the edge and reducing the number of people in the centre on a Sunday is going to push them out of business. & for what? so the council can make a few extra quid to employ more traffic wardens to embarass the city slapping tickets on Bruce Springsteens’ tour buses and such like! Short sighted approach to helping the city..