Weather
Fans fury over Reebok concerts' roads chaos
From the Bolton Evening News, first published Friday 8th Jul 2005.
MOTORISTS have hit out at the traffic jams which clogged the roads around the Reebok Stadium following this week's Coldplay concerts.
Summer Concerts at the Reebok goers who drove to the stadium spent more than two hours in their cars as they tried to leave the venue.
They say police had closed some roads and did little to get the traffic flowing.
And police apologised to drivers, saying they were caught unawares by the number of people who had chosen to drive to the stadium and the lack of people willing to travel by train.
The delays meant many did not return home until well after midnight, even though the concert finished at 10.30pm.
Pat Ryder, from Altrincham, arrived home at 12.45am and said: "The traffic control management by Bolton police was appalling.
"We started off for home at 10.45pm, intending to go via Westhoughton and Wigan.
"We were met with a 'Police No Entry' sign half way down the road with no advance warning at the roundabout that the road was closed.
"We then had to turn around and join a completely stationary line of traffic. The traffic on this road did not move for 45 minutes and we were stuck with nowhere to go.
"A police van arrived eventually at about 12.15am. How can they close a road half way down, with no advance warning and then just leave people stuck in a total gridlock?"
The Coldplay concerts attracted more than 65,000 fans over two nights at the Reebok.
The first concert, on Monday night, was delayed for 15 minutes - because of traffic congestion.
Annette Bolton, from Stalybridge, said: "The Coldplay gig was truly amazing. But the only problem we had was getting home.
"The police blocked all the exits except one so we were all stuck waiting to get on the motorway. After the first concert, they should have had the traffic sorted out."
Trevor Young, from Chorley, said: "The Coldplay concert on Tuesday was brilliant. What a pity the shambolic traffic management could not match it. Coldplay may have been delayed by 15 minutes getting in but we were still stuck two hours and 15 minutes trying to get off the car park and there were still many cars behind us."
Sgt Pete Sellers, of Greater Manchester Police, said the Tesco car park had previously been used for concert parking but was unavailable for the Coldplay concerts.
It left stadium bosses with no other choice but to squeeze more cars on to the car parks than usual, he said.
He added: "That had a massive impact on how quickly we were able to get people away.
"We had 34,000 people trying to get on to the motorway at one junction at the same and it caused serious problems.
"We were aware after Monday night'ís event that there had been problems and we arranged a park and ride scheme which departed from Bolton West service station.
"Unfortunately we were unable to print signs in time to publicise this.
"We were also taken by surprise by so few people using extra trains which had been arranged.
"There are lessons to be learned and we would apologise to anybody who was delayed."
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
