What’s Going to Happen to Parking Around the Everton Stadium?

For the majority of Evertonians, there is something to be celebrated about the fact that the club is opening a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock along the Liverpool waterfront.

There is a huge amount of excitement about the new ground, which is going to be open in time for the 2025-2026 Premier League campaign after the Blues have said goodbye to Goodison Park.

Some of the people it might not be good for, though, are the local businesses based around the ground who fear losing out on business if parking restrictions are put in place where their shops are located.

What Was Suggested

There is little question that Everton’s new stadium will be good for the city of Liverpool. In spite of the fact that some Evertonians are quick to suggest that Liverpool supporters aren’t happy about the new ground opening, the truth is that most Reds realise that it will be a great thing for the area in general.

Football matches bring people to the city and that can only be a good thing, thanks to the amount of money that will be spent by those football fans in the bars, hotels, restaurants and shops that are based in the city centre, as well as the people employed to work in the stadia.

@aerialmotionphotography Everton’s new stadium sat on the Mersey – ready to welcome fans in August 2025 #evertonstadium #everton #evertonfc #evertonvsliverpool #merseysidederby #dji ♬ ALEX WARREN LEAKED – alex warren snaps

The bad news is that football matches also bring a large number of cars into the area, with the people driving them looking for somewhere to park. As a result, local councils often put parking restrictions in place close to the grounds, and Liverpool City Council is no exception.

In the February of 2025, it was announced that the Council was going to introduce what it referred to as a ‘Football Match Parking Zone’ around the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, causing in excess of 4,000 residents and more than 3,000 businesses to have to apply for a parking permit ahead of the Experimental Traffic Road Order.

Last week businesses affected by the parking restrictions around the new Everton Stadium came together to express their concerns.@LiverLibDems and I fully support them and we’re calling for two things.

👉🏼 immediately pause the parking scheme until it’s properly worked out

👉🏼… pic.twitter.com/fjvaL0zGHD

— Carl Cashman (@CarlCashman) March 10, 2025

The ETRO, to give the scheme its accepted acronym, was put in place over an area that was within half an hour’s walk of the new Everton Stadium, and it included heavy restrictions for on-street parking.

Unsurprisingly, residents and business owners based in the area were not happy, largely because of the fact that the Council had revealed that the restrictions would be put in place all year round rather than just on match days. A number of businesses quickly claimed that such a situation would see them go under, such as the owners of Ten Streets Social located close to the new ground.

Plans Suspended

Not longer after the plans were announced, as many as 5,000 people responded to Liverpool City Council’s consultation on the changes and more than 16,400 people signed a petition entitled, “STOP the 365-Day Parking Restrictions Around Bramley-Moore Everton Stadium!”

Although businesses could apply for up to ten parking permits, it would cost them £50 per vehicle to do so and drivers would have to be back in their car within an hour in order to avoid being given a ticket. It is obviously an entirely unsustainable situation for businesses to be in if they hope to be able to remain a going concern.

Liam Robinson, the Leader of the Authority responsible for the measures, said, “We will now take the time between now and the start of the new football season to get the balance of new measures right, and in the meantime suspend the measures in the parts of the zone of most concern to local businesses. There is still the year-round issue of commuter parking affecting our residential areas with the zone, so it makes absolute sense for the measures to continue there”. A formal review was also launched in order to assess whether there is some sort of halfway house that could be reached around the parking measures.

Is it Just Greed From Liverpool City Council?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many people began to wonder why on earth the restrictions were put in place all-year round rather than just on match days. The obvious conclusion in the eyes of most was that it was little more than a money grab by the Council, who knew that most businesses would need to apply for parking permits at £50 a go.

Across the rest of the city, for example, changes have also been made that have seen free parking after 6pm abandoned in many places in order to ensure that drivers will have to pay to park their cars after previous time limits.

Scrap all parking restrictions around Bramley Moore and allow fans to park in the side streets near the ground and within 15 mins walking distance of the ground in for 3-4 hours twice a month btw August & May. I can’t accept the argument not too. It’s just a LCC cash cow. #everton

— Ste EFC (@stechad.bsky.social) 26 March 2025 at 18:45

The fact that transport links to the ground are entirely inadequate, just as they are for Anfield and have always been for Goodison, means that the Council is well-placed to look to charge people whatever they want in order to park close to the ground, as they know getting the likes of a train or a bus will be nearly impossible on a match day.

It is yet another example of football supporters being ‘othered’ by the authorities and asked to do things that lovers of sports such as tennis, golf or rugby would never be asked to do simply because the Council thinks it can get away with it.