02/03/2012 - Permalink

Extra car parking for Shrewsbury Town evening matches for rest of season

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Shropshire Council is throwing its support behind Shrewsbury Town’s promotion bid by opening up a free car park for the remaining evening fixtures this season.

The council’s park and ride car park at Meole Brace is usually closed at night, but for the next three evening games it will be open until 11pm for fans to park for free.

Council leader, Keith Barrow, said the council was keen to encourage as many fans as possible to get behind Shrewsbury Town as the team closes in on a possible promotion to League One.

He said:

“We want to support the club in its push for promotion, which would be fantastic for the county as a whole, not just supporters of Shrewsbury Town.  I know that attendances are generally lower at midweek matches so we wanted to do our bit to help get more fans to the ground to give the team as much support as possible at this important stage of the season.

“We came in for a bit of stick from some fans for giving parking tickets to people who parked on double yellow lines at the entrance to the park and ride site on Monday night.  We are not backing down on that – people know they’re not allowed to park on double yellow lines – but it did highlight that some fans might not be going to the games because of difficulty parking.  So we hope by opening Meole Brace Park and Ride car park for the remaining three evening matches of the season we can encourage some big attendances at the Greenhous Meadow.”

The car park will be open until 11pm for the following games:

  • Tuesday 6 March – Oxford United
  • Tuesday 20 March – Cheltenham Town
  • Tuesday 27 March – Port Vale

Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for parking and transport, Simon Jones, said:

“This is a gesture of goodwill for the remaining evening games this season, and we will need to talk to the football club about whether there is any need to open the car park for evening games in the future.  We wouldn’t want to raise expectations that this is a permanent option, but we hope it will help fans for the remainder of this season.”

Roland Wycherley, chairman of Shrewsbury Town Football Club, said:

“We are delighted with the support of Shropshire Council and hope this helps as many fans as possible to come and get behind the team.”