Wrexham AFC: Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds face Kop expansion challenge

Plans to expand Wrexham AFC's new Kop stand have been challenged over concerns about parking and traffic.

Highways officers say the area around the SToK Cas Ras cannot cope with the extra demand from an increase in crowds.

The Championship club wants to raise the stand's initial size to 7,750 - an increase of 2,250 - taking the stadium capacity to 17,250 overall.

But officials say the data used to support the plans is flawed and underestimates the impact on matchdays.

The council's chief executive said there were some planning issues to address but they remained committed to working with the club to help with solutions, wherever possible.

The additional capacity would increase parking demand by more than 1,800 – far more than the area can cope with.

"Overall occupancy of available off-street parking on matchdays was recorded as 1,840 vehicles shortly before kick-off on matchdays," the Local Highways Authority (LHA) stated in a report to Wrexham council's planning committee.

"That equates to approximately 59% utilisation with around 1,330 spaces available at that time."

Highways officials say assumptions of 2.4 people-per-car mean calculations based on the increased capacity would lead to an estimated additional 1,841 vehicles on match days.

"This exceeds the 1,330 off-street spaces identified as available at peak time and suggests that additional demand would need to be accommodated elsewhere, including on the surrounding highway network," said their report.

On-street parking surveys from this season show that capacity is already maxed out - meaning there is nowhere for the additional traffic to go.

"The LHA concludes that the applicant has not provided a sufficiently robust evidence base to demonstrate that the highway and parking impacts of the proposed development would be acceptable," said the report.

"The application, as currently submitted, does not demonstrate that the additional parking and highway impacts arising from the proposed increase in stadium capacity can be satisfactorily mitigated.

It recommends a "robust" transport assessment and parking impact analysis before the proposals are accepted or before any associated mitigation package, can be properly considered.

This is not the first time that the planning process has slowed Wrexham AFC's expansion plans.

When owners Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds initially tried to get their Kop proposal off the ground Mac expressed his frustration in the club's Welcome to Wrexham documentary at delays caused by planning bureaucracy.

The club has also been criticised by Wrexham's planning committee for the number of retrospective applications it has previously submitted.

Councillor Dave Bithell said that the club needed to respect the planning process.

Everybody should respect the red tape," he said. "The football club are not exempt from that, like any other business."

Wrexham Council chief executive Alwyn Jones said while there were some matters for planning to address, the council remains committed to working with the club to help with solutions wherever possible.

"We want to proactively and positively work with the football club," he said. "They do great things, so we want to work with them positively as we would any business that wants to engage."