Brighton and Hove Albion is asking for permission to build a new car park on a grassy bank at the Amex.
The three-storey decked building would have spaces for 43 vehicles, all of which would be used by directors and employees of the football club.
When it was first built, the club leased adjacent farmland, Bennett’s Field, which they used as a 650-space car park.
But the owner of the field is now building flats to house 557 students on most of the land, leaving just 128 parking spaces.
In an application submitted to Brighton and Hove City Council, the club’s planning agent DMH Stallard said: “The loss of this parking has caused significant issues for running of the Stadium on matchdays and provision of sufficient parking for its employees to aid with the success of its travel management plan.
“Further to the above, it is noted that the majority of the applicant’s matchday and non-matchday parking is leased from surrounding landholders, which puts this parking at threat in the future should those landholders not agree lease renewals.
“The likelihood of spaces being lost continues to rise, given the ever increasing demand to make an efficient utilisation of brownfield space within urban areas.”
The bank sits to the south west of the stadium. If approved, a hedge and six whitebeam trees would have to be removed.
The application says the trees would be replanted elsewhere on the site and a new hedgerow and nine new whitebeam trees planted once the car park is built.
It says the club will also buy credits from a site such as the Iford Biodiversity Project – a rewilding project funded by developers wanting to offset loss of biodiversity as a result of building work.
The top floor of the car park would be accessed by land owned by the University of Brighton, which the club is negotiating with on the basis it would only be used 50 times a year.
The application says that while it accepts the council wants more people to use public transport, “car use must clearly remain an important part of the overall travel management strategy for the Stadium, because further improvements in either train or bus services are limited.”
It says 75% of fans travel to home games via sustainable transport – far more than any other Premier League team, and Albion is the only club to subsidise public transport for fans.
Hmm buy credits , shorthand for green washing the whole project
Why don’t the directors use the train or bus like the majority of supporters?
I just love the ” subsidy” claim, where the truth is, and always was from the start, that a £4 surcharge on ticket prices is in place to cover the cost of the travel plan.
Also, when the club paid back that money to travel groups organising coaches, out of the £4 per ticket holder, they only paid £2 per passenger.
There is enough car park space already acres of it, instead of destroing more green areas build a multistory over top of the existing parking and while they are at it put solar panels on the top to shade cars on roof. Might offset the waste of electricity they make turning skys orange all the time with stadium light clutter.