Nottinghamshire County Council will today receive a petition signed by frustrated resident neighbours of Nottingham Forest’s City Ground stadium, in an effort for the Council to seek a solution to the permanent obstructive barriers on matchday currently in use.
The petition, submitted at today’s Full Council meeting by the Labour Group’s West Bridgford North Councillor Penny Gowland, asks for the Council to change and improve the existing arrangements for managing the gates across the highway around Nottingham Forest Football Club Ground, to allow residents reasonable access to their houses around the times of the matches.
Cllr Gowland said:
“The residents are unhappy at being barricaded into their homes every match day.
“We understand that measures like these gates are required to keep people safe, however when you compare these to measures in other areas or outside other stadiums which manage similar types of risk, those which use of resident-friendly retractable bollards or automated gates for example, it’s clear that what has been put in place here at the City Ground is, by comparison, a greatly inferior choice to other solutions currently out there.
“There is also a risk to residents which isn’t being considered by these gates. What if a resident needed to leave urgently in their car to respond to an emergency? It is simply not possible when these old-fashioned barriers are down.
“Ultimately, if we expect these sorts of protective measures to be in place in the long term, then it is my view and the view of the residents that we need investment in smarter solutions, which take advantage of existing technologies and successfully provides the same level of security, but without the constant obstruction, as is seen in use widely elsewhere.
“We know that professional football is a very lucrative industry, surely there is a way for the Council, Nottingham Forest Football Club and others to work together with residents to come together to find a more innovative solution which keeps football fans safe and which isn’t impinging unnecessarily on the lives of local residents?”
For more information from Nottinghamshire Labour on this petition, visit the Nottinghamshire Labour Facebook Page.
