Some motorists who parked in residential roads near Ashton Gate Stadium yesterday returned to their vehicles to discover they’d received an X-rated warning ticket from a disgruntled local resident.
Cars parked on Raynes Road were among several in the streets of Ashton that were targeted by the anonymous sticker vigilante - telling the drivers that they had ‘parked like a c***’.
The stickers - which are sold on the internet - look like regular parking tickets from a distance, but instead of containing a penalty notice fine from the local council, are simply just abusive.
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With a bright yellow background and black-checked outline, the fake parking ticket reads: “You’ve parked like a c*** - do not do it again. Warning. The person who ‘parked’ this vehicle doesn’t give a s*** about other people, the selfish b*****d”.
The stickers are the latest salvo in a simmering row around matchday parking in Ashton, which has been bubbling away for the past couple of years, since crowds returned to Bristol City and Bristol Bears matches following the Covid pandemic.
The stickers were left on cars in the hour before the Bristol City v Middlesbrough match at teatime on Easter Monday, which saw more than 21,000 fans watch a 2-2 draw in the Championship.
The issue has still not been solved by either Ashton Gate or Bristol City Council, with a stalemate over who should pay for any kind of matchday parking scheme, which would see residents given temporary permits in certain streets for the hours either side of a home rugby or football match at the stadium.
When the stadium was redeveloped in the mid-2010s, there was a condition that Bristol Sport would set up and pay for a matchday parking scheme if Bristol City were promoted to the Premier League or if three games out of any consecutive five saw crowds of more than 25,000.
That almost happened with Bristol City’s run to the League Cup semi-final in the winter of 2017-18 but neither trigger has looked likely to happen since, and the Covid pandemic banishing crowds for a full season saw a pause to the calls.
The issue is further complicated by the fact that many residents living on Raynes Road, and other streets in Ashton that are near the ground, move their own vehicles out of their drives and park on the street, and charge fans to park on their drives instead.
It's also further complicated by the continuing issues with the Long Ashton Park and Ride site - a publicly-owned 500-space car park less than a mile from Ashton Gate - which was closed on Easter Monday because it was a Bank Holiday.
At the start of this season, a new anonymous Twitter account called ‘Residents Parking For Ashton Gate’ was set up, and has been highlighting the worst instances of bad parking in the streets around the ground.
Last month, local councillor Mark Bradshaw (Labour, Bedminster) shared photos of vehicles left on Gores Marsh Park on the day of Bristol City’s home match against Blackpool on March 11, calling on the council and the police to ‘do some matchday enforcement’.
But the ‘Residents Parking’ Twitter account states it is not just calling for a matchday parking scheme, and says they are highlighting the issue with regular events at the stadium too.
The parking issue is something that Ashton Gate says it is addressing. The new ‘Sporting Quarter’ project will see a 536-space multi-storey car park built on the site of the current Wickes DIY store, alongside a new 5,000-capacity indoor sports and convention centre, a 232-room hotel, 125 flats, gym, museum and offices.
Read next: How Ashton Gate Sporting Quarter will change South Bristol in years to come
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Bristol’s Labour candidates in the Southville ward at the 2021 election said they had secured the promise from council chiefs that some kind of extension to the residents parking scheme from Southville into Ashton would be looked at, but two Green candidates won the election there. Although the Mayor said the council was 'considering' funding some kind of residents' parking scheme back in January 2022, saying there was 'overwhelming support' for the idea, it's not yet happened in the 15 months since.
There is one possibility that something could still happen regarding either a permanent scheme or a matchday or events scheme in the streets around Ashton Gate. Bristol City Council awarded planning permission for the Sporting Quarter, but left issues like the knock-on effect on residents parking to be the subject of a series of planning conditions to be thrashed out in negotiations between the stadium bosses and the council’s planning officers.
When planning officers produced their report recommending the Sporting Quarter be given planning permission in October 2022, they said: “Members are advised that negotiations are currently taking place between parties in relation to a variation to this existing S106 obligation for Ashton Gate Stadium.
“It is proposed that this will require an additional clause to also include SCC attendance figures if an event at the SCC is concurrent with an event at the stadium and the combined total attendances trigger Ashton Gate Limited’s current S106 obligation.
“A similar planning obligation in this respect is also required in relation to the proposed development. Discussions are currently taking place regarding the exact details and wording of both obligations but at the time of writing this report this has not been agreed and finalised,” they added.
“In principle, these obligations are considered to provide adequate protection against any unacceptable additional impact on local parking issues that may result from the additional vehicle movements associated with the proposed SCC development and negate the immediate need for a Residents Parking Scheme. Members are advised that legal opinion given to Officers in relation to this matter indicates that this is in principle a viable solution but that it cannot be confirmed at this stage,” they added.
As yet, there is no update from the city council’s planning department on whether agreement on that has been made.
Read more:
- Bedminster parking row erupts again with 'park in your own street' notes left on windscreens
- 'It's not us!' - new twist in street parking row as neighbours post their own signs
- 'Liveable neighbourhood' proposed for South Bristol to reduce rat runs
- Bristol City Council's planning backlog is badly 'impacting city's economy'
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