Construction work poised to begin on £5m transport scheme at Leeds United's Elland Road ground

Council planners gave the green light at the end of last year to a major expansion of an existing park-and-ride facility next to Elland Road.

As part of the scheme, a two-way link road will be built between Bobby Collins Way and Lowfields Road, around the northern edge of the ground.

And today transport bosses confirmed that construction work on the project as a whole is scheduled to get under way in March.

Elland Road’s existing park-and ride-site – which was developed by Leeds City Council and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and opened in 2014 – lies to the west of the stadium and has a total of 800 vehicle spaces.

The new scheme will add a further 550 spaces on nearly four hectares of land between the ground’s Revie Stand and the M621.

Setting out proposals for the link road, a council planning report says: “This is primarily to be a ‘bus only’ route but cars will be permitted to use it to access and exit the new car parking area.

“It is also intended to build capacity into this road in order to enable it to be used by football traffic on Saturday [matchdays] if required.”

The report states that “local labour and apprentices” will be used during the expansion work where possible.

Named after one of United’s greatest ever players, Bobby Collins Way provides access to Elland Road’s existing park-and-ride site.

Lowfields Road, meanwhile, separates the ground’s East Stand and Centenary Pavilion.

As previously reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post, the Elland Road park-and-ride and its sister site at Temple Green, near junction 45 of the M1 in east Leeds, recently recorded their two millionth passenger journey.