Darlington Football Club looks like escaping an injunction to close its new stadium just days before the new season, despite not fulfilling an agreement designed to prevent parking chaos.

People in the surrounding streets fear a parking free-for-all prior to the opening match at the Reynolds Arena on Saturday, August 16, because the club has not agreed to pay the £60,000 cost of setting up and enforcing a residents' permit scheme.

Barry Keel, chief executive, sent a letter to the club chairman, George Reynolds, at the end of July reminding him of its duty to comply with the conditions - agreed in order to obtain planning permission for the Neasham Road stadium.

The conditions were set out in a "106 agreement" - a legally-binding document commonly used in planning negotiations to ensure a developer complies with the planning consent.

The residents' parking scheme will be the biggest the council has had to establish and a public notice of its intentions was advertised for the first time only yesterday.

It could be at least two months before residents receive even a temporary permit.

John Buxton, director of development, told the D&S Times: "We were having discussions with the football club about what the sum of money would be and how that would be paid, before committing ourselves to the scheme. But we couldn't reach agreement.

"We will invoice them and recover the money, through the courts if we have to. It is not a case of the council agreeing to pay or bearing the cost.

"We are not going to seek an injunction to stop the stadium opening. It is most unlikely we would issue a planning 'stop' notice. But if things don't work out according to plan, we are keeping our options open.

"The club still has to get a safety certificate from the council. They have one from the Football League, but they can't open without getting one from us. That certainly won't be done this week."

He added: "With any major development, things never go exactly to plan and the planning conditions on this one were particularly onerous and voluntarily entered into.

"The residents' parking scheme in time for the first match was one of the most important ones."

Jan Mazurk and Jean Bowes, of the Neasham Road Action Group, are furious at what they see as Darlington Borough Council's lack of action.

Ms Mazurk said: "This permit scheme was agreed four years ago and the first home game is next Saturday.

"Why has the council not enforced these planning conditions? People want to know what sort of hold George Reynolds has over the council.

"The club said last week that the council had 'not negotiated well enough'. What was there to negotiate?

"When permission was given for the stadium, Reynolds said 'I am a millionaire, I will pay for everything'. Now he is saying the council has to negotiate just a week before the opening, after having four years to get on with it."

Mrs Bowes said: "We knew we had lost our fight when we got the stadium but we welcomed all the safeguards in the 106 agreement.

"Since then the capacity has changed from 10,000 to 25,000, the original entertainment hours have been extended and just about everything which was agreed has been welshed on."

According to the agreement, the club promised to foot the bill for all the costs incurred in the making of highway signs, improvements and traffic orders in connection with match days. Also included in the agreement were:

* A subsidised bus service, free from the town centre and the railway station, and cut price from Stockton via Yarm and Middleton St George was promised.

A spokeswoman for Arriva North-East said talks were held earlier this year with the club, but nothing had been heard since.

* The club pledged to spend not less than £20,000 on advertising to promote public transport to and from the ground.

* A road widening scheme outside the ground is taking place now, but the club has not enlarged the footpaths under the nearby railway bridge or made access improvements at the A66 roundabout.

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