BOLTON Wanderers are confident they can persuade thousands of people to leave their cars at home in return for the green light for their multi million pound sports village.

The club and developers say they are happy to comply with the strict conditions demanded by Environment Secretary John Gummer.

But they could try to increase the 5000 car parking spaces allowed by the Minister when he gave the go ahead to the Horwich development.

As reported in Saturday's BEN, the Department of the Environment gave permission for the stadium provided developers adhered to a number of conditions, even stricter than those proposed by the inspector who chaired last year's public inquiry.

Most centred on taking steps to encourage people visiting or working there to use the buses or trains.

The Minister reduced the number of car parking spaces from 8000 and gave developers 21 days to compile a report on how they would stop visitors and staff parking on nearby streets. He stressed that the developers should do all in their power to secure the proposed new railway station and bus services at the site.

Bolton Wanderers were happy they could meet the new criteria.

A spokesman said: "We do not think it is a major issue and are confident it can be resolved.

"At the moment we only have 200 parking spaces at Burnden Park so this is an increase.

"It has always been our position to encourage people to use public transport. "We are currently talking to three bus companies who are keen to offer combined match and travel tickets. They are all keen to participate and we hope to offer direct transport from 14 or 15 locations in Greater Bolton.

"This issue will not cause the Club any particular problem. Everyone is very anxious to see the development progress."

Developers Orbit had to redo their maths over the weekend to calculate the minimum number of spaces needed for the commercial development.

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