A petition has been launched to work on a better solution for car parking during football matches in Earley.
Laurel Park is a 14-acre community park and sports recreation ground in Lower Earley.
Situated next to the Maiden Erlegh nature reserve, the park features football pitches, a local community pavilion, and a car park.
The park is the home of Laurel Park Football Club, a successful club with 33 active teams for boys and girls from under-7s to under-18s age categories.
The club has 19 boys’ teams and 14 girls’ teams.
While it does have a place for car parking, there have been complaints about parking difficulties because the current car park has approximately 50 spaces that can become full.
This is said to lead to inconsiderate parking in Marefield, which links Rushey Way to the Laurel Park Pavilion and the car park.
Conservative group leader, and councillor doe Hillside, Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, has launched a petition calling on Wokingham borough council to fund a solution that would divert matchday traffic to Rushey Way.
She said: “The Marefield estate is plagued by too much parking on football match days.
“Moses Iyengunmwena, my fellow ward councillor and I have worked up a scheme to provide some extra parking for footballers at the entrance off Rushey Way to the field, which means that people won’t have to drive all the way up Marefield only to find there are no spaces, which obviously causes a lot of congestion.
“We are going to try and get the borough council to do something about this.
“I’d really appreciate it if you could sign up and try and help both the footballers and the residents of Marefield.”
The petition states: “We call for Wokingham council to develop a plan for match day parking at Laurel Park, accessible from Rushey Way, and to allocate capital funding in the 2027/8 budget to progress this project.”
You can view the petition via cllr Jorgensen’s website here: www.paulinejorgensen.uk/Laurel_Park_Parking .
The petition is clear that the proposed solution would require investment to be implemented.
Laurel Park was previously identified as a location for a 3G sports pitch. However, the project faced opposition from neighbours and was ultimately rejected in 2022.
The council’s Playing Pitch Strategy Action Plan states that the alternative locations for artificial grass pitches in Earley are Chalfont Park and Maiden Erlegh School in Silverdale Road.
Cllr Mark Ashwell, executive member for sport, told Wokingham Today that he had been working on a resolution with all stakeholders for many years.
He said: “I would welcome ideas, and any constructive solutions, that would benefit everyone.”
