Doing a bit of work looking into urban regeneration projects and stumbled on this talking about the new stadium: Quote ...On Merseyside, for instance, a new stadium for the St Helens Rugby League Club should be good news. The local authority is desperate for this stadium to be built. So desperate, they are failing to demand decent design. When the Tesco’s there is replaced with a superstore and massive new car park, it will dominate a site which relegates the stadium round the back, with lousy public space.'" you can read it yourself at www.cabe.org.uk/articles/delight What do you all think, recon their right

Doing a bit of work looking into urban regeneration projects and stumbled on this talking about the new stadium: Quote ...On Merseyside, for instance, a new stadium for the St Helens Rugby League Club should be good news. The local authority is desperate for this stadium to be built. So desperate, they are failing to demand decent design. When the Tesco’s there is replaced with a superstore and massive new car park, it will dominate a site which relegates the stadium round the back, with lousy public space.'" you can read it yourself at www.cabe.org.uk/articles/delight What do you all think, recon their right

There isn't a Tesco there. They do have a point about the lack of space for non-Tesco customers. Parking and getting to the ground looks like it could be a problem. I would have liked to have seen something linking the town centre to the new ground.

Quote ="paw81"Doing a bit of work looking into urban regeneration projects and stumbled on this talking about the new stadium: you can read it yourself at www.cabe.org.uk/articles/delight What do you all think, recon their right '" We'll alll know where the new stadium is, thats all that matters. Saints will only really use it once every 2 weeks, Tesco's will be used everyday.

Quote ="paw81"Doing a bit of work looking into urban regeneration projects and stumbled on this talking about the new stadium: you can read it yourself at www.cabe.org.uk/articles/delight What do you all think, recon their right '" We'll alll know where the new stadium is, thats all that matters. Saints will only really use it once every 2 weeks, Tesco's will be used everyday.

Isn't there supposed to be a bridge being built, which has to be big enough to support emergency vehicles? (It was originally going to be just a foot bridge if I remember) Also, the council are supposed to be upgrading security on the two multi-storey car parks at that end of the town centre, which apparently is where the traffic for the stadium is due to park.

I think, though, that Saints are hoping the stadium will be used for other events when matches are not being played, so parking is an issue.

I would imagine that the times that Saints would be using the facilities for non-game day activities would be off-peak time for Tesco e.g. evening meals, midweek daytime conferences. In fact Saturday and Sunday games would probably be the most difficult but shoppers would learn to look out for Saints games once they hit the traffic the first couple of times.

Yes i think they want to use if for conferences etc, though from planning permission rock concerts are out of the equation, which is a shame as there is no housing nearby.
The lack of car parking spaces is an area of concern, not so much for the match day activities but for events like conferencing etc.
If parking is inadequate for conferences, then they will look for alternative venues, and i suspect business types will prefer not to book a venue where they will need to park in a multi storey car park 15 minutes walk away.
Similarly the lack of onsite parking may impact the club bar/restauraunt from generating income throughout the week by attracting people at dinnertime. This is unless there is a sneaky way of them parking on the Tescos then walking to Saints. Something that Tescos are likely to start to baulk at.
Although to counteract this, Saints may be able to try to attract Tesco shoppers into the bar/restaurant for a post shop meal or drink.

I asked about that at the meeting I've referred to. The response was that they wanted to keep planning permission simple at that stage so as to give the plans maximum opportunity to pass. However, they made it clear they were not averse to considering an application for a music/performance licence once it's all done and dusted.

Looking at the final plans which are now on the Council website, it looks like there is more parking available to Saints than originally appeared to be the case.

Hence Parking on non match days is less likely to be an issue, for things like conferences etc.

The plans show 91 match day parking spaces along with 28 disabled in the north west corner of stadium.

There are also a further 34 non match day parking spaces, along with 29 disabled spaces behind the east stand. Please note these disabled spaces would appear to be available on match days.

These 34 non match parking spaces will be used for broadcast vehicles and also to park the team buses on match day.

Guy you don't get 18K to conferences, the parking for conferences is easily adequate, max of a few hundred per conference.

At this point nothing at the ground except Saints games will get more than a few hundred.

Maybe in the future if a performance licence is granted then sure parking might be a problem, but come on, why cost in parking that will lay empty for 350 days per year?

I doubt it would really, if the parking for the games is adequate, then parking for performances of other kinds will be.

It's not a great walk from parking in the town centre and I'm sure that the council will be happy to pay a couple of blokes over time to keep Chalon Way car park open late one night every once in a while. Whilst people attending conferences might baulk a bit at walking (though it doesn't hamper conferences held in the middle of Liverpool and Manchester), I doubt it would stop people attending concerts.

edit: The bold on this new board isn't very bold is it?

Really???

I thought that all the world's biggest bands would be queuing up to play in St Helens.

They were supposed to be upgrading the security in the two multi-storeys to include on-site personnel to facilitate people attending the stadium at night time. Whether that is still a part of the plan I don't know but it certainly was 18 months ago.

Well you have to cross continents to get from the car park at the NEC and they seem to cope with much bigger events than Saints will ever host.

I agree that parking for the bar and restaurant needs to be nearer but these won't attract the sort of numbers a conference does so i'm sure they'll cope.