Stadium chief answers concerns over HD One

EXTRA car parking is a top priority for planners behind Huddersfield’s ambitious HD One scheme.

Kirklees Stadium Development Ltd (KSDL) announced that work will start “straight away” on the £100m development which will include a hotel, an artificial ski slope, restaurants and a ten-pin bowling centre to be built on a 20-acre site alongside the John Smith’s Stadium. HD One is scheduled for completion in late 2020.

While many Examiner readers have welcomed the plan, others have expressed fears that the scheme will mean a loss of car parking at the stadium site and more congestion on routes around Leeds Road.

Responding to those concerns, KSDL managing director Gareth Davies said the plan would more than double the number of parking spaces, which currently stand at 978.

He said additional parking would be one of the first elements of the scheme,

“It is very much part of our thinking.”

Commenting on traffic issues, he said: “KSDL from the very start has always understood that travel would be a challenge for HD One.”

At present, a higher percentage of traffic on match days and nonmatch days used the bridge at Bradley Mills Road, off Leeds Road, to the north of the site rather than Stadium Way, off St Andrew’s Road, to the south of the site.

He said the layout of the development would aim to address access issues by “balancing” use of the two road bridges onto the site.