Newcastle City Council has confirmed that road closures around St. James’ Park will be extended to include both before and after matches, starting with Sunday’s Premier League game against Wolves.

Closures first came into operation on a trial basis 15 months ago, with several streets shut at full time to allow supporters to exit the stadium and surrounding areas safely.

The council has kept the closures under review and after consultation with Newcastle United, the club’s Fans Forum and Northumbria Police, a multi-agency safety advisory group has decided to extend the closure period to the start of the game as fans make their way into the stadium.

The new arrangements will be operational from this Sunday and on all other matchdays.

Cabinet Member for the Environment, Cllr Nick Kemp, said: "The safety of football fans on match day has, and always be our paramount priority.

"We introduced these measures on a trial period over a year ago, so we could monitor the effects and listen to fans.

"It is clear that many fans wanted the closure before the game as well as after the game, so we’ve decided to bring in this change.

"These measures were introduced shortly after the Westminster Bridge atrocity and purely for precautionary measures as happened at many other grounds across the country.

"I would like to stress that there is nothing to suggest that the ground is any more of a target and we are merely listening to fans’ wishes."

Car parks will remain open as normal on matchdays, but motorists may have to change their access route to some of them near to the ground.

New arrangements

Road closures start one hour before the start of the match on:

• Leazes Terrace and the area around the East Stand

• Strawberry Place between the junction with Barrack Road and the Strawberry Public House

• Strawberry Lane at the junction with Strawberry Place

These closures will remain in place until approximately 30 minutes after the end of the match.

Road closures start about one hour after the start of the match on:

• Strawberry Place at the junction with Leazes Park Road

• Leazes Park Road between Percy Street and Strawberry Place junctions

• Terrace Place

These closures will remain in place until approximately 30 minutes after the end of the match.