Burnley matchday road plan sparks criticism as MP warns of “utter carnage” around Turf Moor

Burnley MP Oliver Ryan has criticised plans to shut a number of roads near Turf Moor on matchdays, claiming it would cause “utter carnage”.

Lancashire County Council, which is run by Reform UK, is proposing that Yorkshire Street, Todmordern Road and a section of Belvedere Road should be closed when Burnley FC are playing at home.

New Burnley FC proposal faces major backlash

The proposal comes after around £6 million was spent on the controversial ‘Town 2 Turf' redevelopment project, which involved updating the links between the ground and the town centre.

In response to the new plans, Labour MP Ryan wrote on Facebook: “From the brains behind Town to Turf – more traffic chaos!

“Lancashire County Council (LCC) have come up with another cracking idea to block up our town and cause utter carnage (and I'm not even talking about the temporary traffic lights on Westgate… or the project that must not be named I've objected to for two years [Manchester Road].)”

Matt Townsend, director of Highways at Lancashire County Council, has defended the idea, stating: “Crowd safety is of paramount importance, and has always been at the fore of robust arrangements for access and egress at this location since 2012.

“However, operational changes to match day management have required the existing arrangement to be updated with minimal changes to what has been in place since 2012.

“Any road closure for this reason would last from a maximum of two hours before matches until one hour afterwards, and for no more than eight hours in any given 24 hours.”

However, a number of local residents are not happy, with one telling the BBC: “If I have to go out for an emergency, I can't. They should have tickets for people who live here to stop people parking up.”

Another added: “I think it is a problem for people who need to be out and about on a Saturday, they can't leave the car park where they park usually because there's no spaces left. And if you are leaving, the traffic's ridiculous, you can't get through. There are changes needed, there must be somewhere, some pots of land they can open up for parking for football fans.”

FGG says: A compromise must be reached

The public consultation on the proposal closed on July 3 and it remains to be seen what the final decision will be.

Hopefully, a compromise can be reached that satisfies all parties, but it does seem unlikely at this point.