Parking restrictions at Celtic Park and Ibrox Stadium could be implemented by end of year despite objections

New match day parking controls around Celtic Park and Ibrox Stadium should be ready to be rolled out by the end of the year despite “strong objections.”

The council has been working on ways to control problems with how cars are parked on match days, which impacts residents living near the grounds of Glasgow’s two big clubs.

During discussions about the event day parking zones there have been concerns from stakeholders about fans being able to access the football grounds.

Changes have been made to proposals and now bosses hope they could be ready to be enforced as soon as a consultation finishes by the end of this year.

Updating Glasgow City councillors yesterday, an official said: “We are continuing our work on the event parking zones around Celtic Park and Ibrox Stadium to try and help residents who live within the vicinity.”

She added: “We had to go through quite significant stakeholder engagement and that resulted in quite a lot of feedback.

“As a result of that we decided we would have an accessibility assessment done as there were some quite strong objections from major stakeholders that there would be issues with access to the stadium.

“We had to go back and do that accessibility assessment and as a result of that we will do some amendments to those plans.”

The council has described in the past how there has been “inconsiderate and obstructive parking” around the stadiums.

Previous efforts to control the problems had to be dropped as the process was held up by the pandemic among other issues. Celtic and Rangers expressed opposition to the plans at the time alongside fans.

Speaking at Tuesday’s environment and liveable neighbourhoods city policy committee, the official continued: “Some of you may be aware that there is a bit of history with this one.

“And it is really important therefore that we do try to make sure that we take all stakeholders with us and get as much support for that as we can before we take it through the statutory process.

“We are hoping to go back out to statutory consultation and we are hoping that consultation will be complete by the end of this year.

“And that will be ready for us to take forward and implement that for residents around these areas.”

Explaining more about the background, a council report presented to the committee said: “A previous traffic regulation process met with significant objection from stakeholders and was referred to an independent reporter.

“Every effort is therefore being made to ensure that objections to the proposals are minimised.”

It added: “Following feedback received during the engagement sessions, it was deemed necessary to conduct an accessibility assessment for both stadia and amend the originally proposed plans.

“At the request of key stakeholders, it was agreed to carry out further in-person meetings with them once the designs have been amended.

“Current projections show that the statutory process could be complete by the end of the year 2024, ready then for physical implementation.”

The exact details of the proposed restrictions were not discussed at the meeting but the LDRS previously reported how event day parking zones would allow residents and businesses to use permits to park as they would on non-match days. Residents’ visitor permits can also be purchased.

Those who breach restrictions would face fines.