Situated where we are we can’t hear the Oasis gig at all, as the concert is on the Bury Old Road side of the park.

Two of Kay’s cousins borrowed a small bit of our drive to park their car and went to the concert.

Their verdict? Fantastic!

Our verdict on the how everything seemed to work?

Traffic appeared to keep moving and there didn’t seem to be the horrific traffic jams we all expected.

There was an enormous amount of people walking around Middleton Road but the park and ride buses seemed to be working well.

Having said that the Middleton Road main gate wasn’t really the focus of foot or car traffic as most people were channeled out of the gig through the Bury Old road gates and the Sheep Foot Lane one.

I know the plan was that tram passengers should make their way to Bowker Vale to get their trams home. That is they wouldn’t be able to use the closer Heaton Park tram station, possibly because it’s smaller than Bowker Vale. All I can say is I hope Metrolink laid on special tram services with double carriages for everyone.

I suspect the traffic will be much more chaotic for the remaining Oasis dates at Heaton park if the weather continues nice, although the forecast is rather gloomy over the weekend: rain is expected.

Remember there are a vast raft of parking restrictions around the area. And as I said before the Heaton Park Sainsbury’s car park is closed to Oasis traffic and again the car park’s 8 foot high gates will close long before the gig finishes!

For those who want to see how the park is laid out check the Heaton Park map and note that there are now 2 further large gates for pedestrians to exit between the Grand Lodge entrance and the text saying Bury Old road on the left of the map at the bottom.

I live right outside Heaton Park where the Oasis concerts are being held.

Looking around the area my advice would be to use the park and ride facilities at Prestwich and elsewhere or to come by tram, arriving either at Heaton Park or Bowker Vale tram stations.

Otherwise it will be a complete nighmare for you. Traffic is fairly nose to tail with the quite small amount of rush hour traffic we normally get on Middleton Road. So you can imagine what it’s going to be like with a vast army of concert goers.

Basically the Middleton road and Sheepfoot Lane roads are completely coned off to prevent parking. And I know that Heaton Park has some parking inside but there’s no way it’s going to be able to meet the needs of the estimated 70,000 Oasis fans. And I suspect it may be all be used up by the buses that will be running into the park anyway.

And just in case you’re thinking of coming on the motorway and parking in the big car park at the Heaton Park Sainsbury’s there’s a notice warning for you not to go in as they’re closing the gates.

Also if you’re thinking of trying to go up Victoria Avenue it’s going to be blocked to concert traffic and all the way up the road is coned off.

Finally if you’re thinking of sneaking in and parking between cones or in a spot that looks vacant the police are operating a tow-away zone.

Obviously we don’t know whether it’s really going to be a nightmare but after years of living here and seeing the arrangements normally made for concerts these go way beyond what has been done before.

So like I said before make it easy on yourself and use public transport.

And then you can enjoy the show!

Sainsbury’s at Heaton Park was the scene of a lot of irate motorists trying to get out of the car park and onto Middleton Road and home. Luckily I got there to buy my milk and bread just as the massive backlog was snaking out of the car park thanks to two policemen directing traffic out. And by the time I left the bollards had been  moved off the carriageway and the way was clear again.

And the cause of this mayhem?

Late Friday night workmen had reduced the normally dual carriageway, outside our house, into Manchester to one lane.  From the placement of the bollards it was obvious that they were going to have another go at the Middleton road leak.

The cause of the mayhem was that the workmen departed leaving the bollards in place. I suspect it was so they could be continue looking into the leak on Middleton road  either in the weekend or on Monday.

Interestingly enough the Manchester Evening News reported that the work had been completed and the workmen hadn’t removed the bollards yet.

That’s certainly possible. However, the water leak is still there so I don’t think it’s likely. In fact the picture you see above was taken about 10 minutes ago after I’d read the MEN and couldn’t believe what I’d just read.

Like I said previously when this leak does start to get fixed it’s likely a hole is going to get dug and that can only mean one thing – traffic chaos!

So, be warned, the traffic on a normally quiet Saturday was bad, so imagine what it’s like when one lane of the carriageway closes? We’ve already had the effects from trying to find the hole last time. There were long tailbacks right back onto the motorway.

So, like I said before, start researching other routes, otherwise you’re destined to be in a nice long queue, almost like being in a car park…

If you checkout Google Zeitgeist you’ll notice that in the UK Manchester Airport parking comes in at the number 10 most searched phrase in June.

That’s either good, because so many people are using Manchester airport and are looking for a convenient parking place. Or bad because the same bunch of people are making multiple searches to find the cheapest parking spaces.

Manchester airport car parking ranges in price, for example from under ?5 per day for parking where you’re collected by shuttle bus to get to the airport to just under ?10 per day if you’re using the short stay car park for Terminal 2 if you pre-book. Terminals 1 and 3 offer different prices.

So you can understand when people look elsewhere for parking. And of course there are a multitude of web sites that have sprung up to act as an intermediary between parkee and park keeper. For example this parking portal gives a range of locations to check prices against.

Or you can just do what my brother did – ask your brother to park it on his drive for 2 weeks. Which is great because I get to use it!

What I’m not meant to…?

Manchester United’s Asia tour kicks-off on Tuesday 17th July against Urawa Red Diamonds at the Saitama Stadium in Tokyo.

Meantime back in Manchester…

I’ll be watching my daughter dance in her end of year musical show at her school on the same day.

And the good thing about her school is that it has a huge car park next to it where all us doting parents can leave our cars whilst we watch our youngsters have a great time.

I’m not sure who’ll have more fun United fans in Tokyo or me at the show!