What a farce

Because he's been absolutely magnificent & that is why he has held is post so long.

That's Sir Stephen Houghton to you.

 

It's a farce at the best of times. Why shut the slip road from Harborough Hills to the away car park on matchdays? That road left the away fans their own route to Oakwell, easy to police, does not result in traffic piling up elsewhere. Same with the slip road from Alhambra roundabout that home fans could use to get to Bala Street. Simple answer by council, only leave two roads open to oakwell then scratch your heads when they get snarled up. I think the original fault is the failure of the council to do anything about pedestrian access across the railway line. They've then shut more and more roads. It reminds me of playing tetris badly. The pieces all just stack up in a haphazard way. As usual with the council though, it's not them that suffer and they are never, ever, ever wrong

 

Who you trying to kid

 

No one, his record speaks for it's sen, take a bow Sir Stephen.

 

Take a look at some of his housing then there are the pot holes.trying to close half of pony road car park to build houses jumble crossing bridge nearly lost funding from network rail because he hadn't got temporary bridge in place now he shuts it on matchday with the proper bridge not ready anytime soon. But he will have the money to do the civic and council offices up. The list is endless but i am not frightened of losing a job with him

 

Alright Steve.

 

Can anyone enlighten me why the ludicrous closure of Beevor Court seems to have got a second wind? Absolutely ridiculous to inconvenience every pedestrian coming that way

 

BTW the car park was almost empty at 17:34.

 

Shouldn't that be Sir Steve

 

I would like someone from the club to b explain why a road that I have used for 25 years is suddenly not safe to use. It's an absolutely f*cking bonkers decision and I cannot think of any other "product" that seems to actively try and alienate it's customers and make it harder than it needs to be.

An explanation as to what is going on is not too much to ask/expect.

 

Don't worry, you can walk up the mud hill and through the broken fence instead, said the steward .

Bonkers and dangerous. Not acceptable at all, especially as you say when it has been used for years.

Why would you want all pedestrians using the exact same entrance/exit?

Can the supporters trust contact the club on our behalf?

 

Not the greatest of experiences today unfortunately. Given the likelihood of an increased crowd I set off an hour earlier than usual but only got into the East Stand as Mads was committing the fatal act at 3.11pm!

No doubt some of what went off would be beyond the club's control but the main bits that impacted me certainly weren't.

1) Eventually after much delay, coming up Pontefract Road to Grove Street in the car I see the entrance to Grove Street coned off so ask the steward what's up as that's the way into the car park that I've got a season ticket for? Reply - "Road's closed, now F**k Off." (I will report this to the club).

2) The guy in the car behind me has a try. "F**k Off - you should have turned in down there" (by Popeye's van). So we all turn our cars round and go back down the road and indeed, yes, entry to the car park is now via this track. Why on earth couldn't the club put someone there to let people coming up Pontefract Road know to turn there? Or even a blooming sign?!!!

3) Once in the car park there was absolutely nobody to let you know where spaces might be, although there were quite a few spaces at the top end near the ground 'cos everyone had parked at the bottom - the presence of even one person to let folk know this would have helped.

4) Worst of all - having negotiated the above, we run round to the East Stand where it becomes clear that all the turnstiles have been closed at bang on 3pm despite it being totally obvious that there are delays. There are some 300-400 folk to get in. Plenty of stewards here who apparently "can't do anything" but only one turnstile operator.

Nobody of course died but the whole thing just smacked of unprofessionalism, lack of control and overall poor co-ordination and communication, with little care for whether folk who spend their hard-earned on, and bust a gut to get to, BFC games, actually get the product they've paid for.

In most circumstances decent communication overcomes a lot of problems but the lack of any such today made it feel like the club's matchday operations are perfectly set up to ensure any minor drama is turned into a crisis, rather than dealt with.

 

I think we’ll stop going if this is a permanent thing. We’ve walked that way for years, never been any bother, everyone gets on the path if a vehicle comes so I’m certain they would if it was an emergency vehicle with sirens.

Instead we’ve now got to walk all along the east stand & down through a busy car park with moving traffic & walk an extra third / half of a mile or whatever it is.

 

When I walked up, there was an abandoned coach on the corner of Bala Street, Windermere Road and Belgrave Road.

First thoughts are that he was stuck, as it was a tight left (followed by a tight right) with cars parked on both sides of the toad. I thought, due to the size of the vehicle, the official route would have taken them down and back up Harborough Hills and up Queens Road.

I suspect the drivers use Google maps and see an easier way which isn't.

 

Took ages today doing the last half a mile, then I worked out we needed to go into the car park near the burger van. Just got in for kick-off into the Ponty.

BUT, the worst thing recently for us was a joke of a decision on the last Saturday home game in December. We parked on grove street not far from the turnstile, which we have been doing this season. When we returned, a steward had blocked off the road, and told me I had to go up Grasmere Road or Belgrave Road. Now this was crazy, as it meant driving behind 100s of fans and uphill for good measure. Rather than drive up grove street which had been quiet and safe all season. It was actually 10x more dangerous doing what we did, plus really making us drive a long way round when we are heading for Hull!

 

The fact is, fans are prepared to put up with all this crap. I don't know what the attendance was yesterday but the East Stand looked pretty full going by the Sky Sports reports. Whilever everyone is prepared to accept this treatment there will be no impetus on the part of the club or the Council to put it right. It's one of two things that has stopped me attending.

 

The coach had actually broken down on the junction totally blocking access to the away car park and channelling everyone down Pontefract Road.
Then the police closed Grove Street, forcing the club to open the bottom car park gates as that was now the only way in.

 

18 mins past 3 before we got in.

 

This is all part of the match day experience that we were promised.
I love scrambling up the muddy hill through the (probably) rat infested, broken glass, (probably) druggy needle mount of slime, to be then faced with an hour and a half of utter tosh on the pitch, then followed by the "You can't go down Beevor Court until the away coaches have departed" so back to the muddy hill in the pitch dark, hoping not to end up on my arse or worse in Barnsley General.
Just out of interest, how long has that gap in the metal fence been there? As long as I can remember. Would it not be safer to repair it and prevent the possibility of serious injury or can't BFC afford a couple of metal posts?
The match day experience, eh. Just gets better and better.

 

There are a couple of mud slides around that I've seen people walking down. Surely fitting steps isn't too pricey (Metrodome to Queens ground car park) and back of East Stand down to Beaver Court.