At the start of this season I wrote to all Seasoncard holders to advise of some changes we were making to the matchday car parking operation at the Etihad Stadium, following feedback from supporters. In that note I said that we would monitor and review these changes and make adjustments to the plan, where necessary.
We are now three home games into the season and despite tweaking the operation each game, it is evident that the changes we implemented are not working as hoped and we need to address this. As such, starting at the Borussia Monchengladbach home match we are revising the plan, as follows:
• Gate 1 returns to being a pedestrian only gate for both entry and exit to the campus.
• Gate 2 is the vehicular gate for entry and exit for all Blue car parks.
• We will implement increased control measures at the junction of Joe Mercer Way and Sport City Way to minimise vehicle and pedestrian interaction. The only way this will work safely is with your co-operation and compliance, so please can I ask that you respect the instruction of the stewards and the signage at this junction.
• Blue Car parks H, J, K and L will be held for up to 15-minutes after the final whistle (as it was last season) to allow the flow of pedestrians on Joe Mercer Way to cross Sport City Way.
• We will introduce a 'no left turn' out of the Asda car park with a temporary closure on Gibbon Street (westbound). A diversion route for vehicles exiting the Asda car park will be implemented around Gibbon Street, Stuart Street, Archer Street, Fairclough Street, Bank Street and onto Ashton New Road. This will allow us to turn vehicles right out of Gate 2 on to Alan Turing Way which we have previously not been able to do.
In the main, these changes revert back to how the car parks operated during the 2015/16 season, albeit with greater control measures in place and further learnings from this review.
When we make changes to the way we operate things, we do so with the supporters' best interests at the forefront of our decision making. These changes often rely on the co-operation of our supporters to make them effective. Unfortunately, the new measures we introduced for the first three home games were not as effective as we had hoped.
We will continue to monitor and review these changes, along with any supporter feedback received throughout the season and where necessary, we will continue to make adjustments and improvements to the plan.