Extension to ease parking woes at Walsall sports centre
Traffic woes suffered by people living near a hugely popular Streetly sports centre could end after a car park extension was agreed.
Streetly Sports and Community Association will convert grassed and planted areas at the Foley Road East into an additional 49 parking spaces, having secured £100,000 from Walsall Council.
Bosses said the centre attracts around 12,000 users a week due to the number of facilities on offer but this has resulted in some visitors being left with no choice but to park on nearby streets.
This has resulted in complaints from neighbours but, after members of Walsall Council’s planning committee approved plans at a meeting on Thursday, it is hoped more parking will alleviate some of the issues.
Mark Mason, from the association, said: “The community centre offers a wide variety of facilities from football fields, sports halls, community halls, squash courts, fitness studios, classrooms, IT rooms and a nursery.
“We generally have around 12,000 users per week through the doors, from babies to residents in the surrounding area.
“We offer sports, social, education, fitness and dance activities. A lot of what we do does help with the social isolation of the elderly population.
“We’ve listened to the residents and understand the success of the community association has caused some traffic problems with the volume of cars being displaced around the local roads, hence why we put the scheme forward.
“This will drastically reduce the traffic problems and hopefully it will benefit all.
“We will continue to work with residents with any problems regarding the community association and residents can come and see me at any point.”
Planning committee member and ward councillor Suky Samra said: “We need to commend the community association for bringing this scheme forward. They offer great facilities, they are an asset to the community.
“This is proactive work on their behalf because there are a lot of traffic problems there. So even two or three spaces, never mind 49, would make a huge difference to the displacement of traffic.”
Chairman Councillor Mike Bird added: “It is encouraging to hear the amount of use this particular site gets. It just shows the community are using the facility and the council are helping as well.”
