City sites for Everton FC were 'rejected a year ago'

Aug 10 2007 by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post

TWO of the alternative sites earmarked by council leader Warren Bradley as a new city home for Everton FC were ruled out a year ago by town hall chief executive Colin Hilton.

Cllr Bradley has launched a mission to ensure his beloved Everton stay in Liverpool rather than move to a new 50,000-seater stadium in Kirkby.

Last month he cited three alternative locations in Liverpool, the Bestway trumpet-loop land in Scotland Road, a car-holding compound in Speke and a large council depot in Long Lane, Aintree.

Sources at Everton FC see the shopping list as a bid by Cllr Bradley to influence the result of the current fans’ ballot over the move to Kirkby.

Last night, the Daily Post studied a letter sent by Mr Hilton on August 2, 2006 to Keith Wyness, chief executive of Everton FC.

The 2006 letter immediately ruled out of the equation the Long Lane site. Although the Speke site was a potential location, the amount of commercial development needed to make it financially viable would have left no space for a football stadium.

The letter confirmed that discussions had taken place between the club, the council and Liverpool Land Development Company which led to a review of possible sites within the city for a new Everton stadium.

From the list of possible sites, two were selected for further consideration – the Liver Industrial Estate in Aintree (The Long Lane site) and the Ansa site in Speke, fronting Speke Boulevard and adjacent to the large retail park.

Mr Hilton told Mr Wyness that irrespective of the need for enabling development at the Aintree estate, the site was considered to have major servicing, access and residential amenity problems associated with it. On that basis, and because of the difficulty of providing a main road frontage, the Aintree site was not progressed further.

Consultants King Sturge, who had been commissioned to produce appraisals of both sites, turned their attention to the 50-acre Speke site.

Mr Hilton said in purely physical terms it could accommodate a new stadium, together with significant amounts of additional development. It was estimated that the minimum cost of buying the site alone would be about £14.55m.

The consultants then studied how much allied development would need to take place to generate £50m.

King Sturge reported that in order to deliver sufficient funding to acquire the site and contribute around £50m of enabling development there would need to be 400,000 sq ft of unrestricted retail development. The land needed for the developments would leave no room for a stadium.

Mr Hilton said in terms of accessibility, visibility and overall location the Speke site represented an excellent location for a relocated Everton. But to achieve a stadium, the enabling development would have to be reduced from £50m to £20m.

That, according to sources at Everton FC, effectively rules out the Speke site. Last night, Cllr Bradley said a recent re-assessment of the Aintree site had now indicated that a stadium was possible on the site.

“We are talking to potential partners about the site and we already have a major supermarket chain interested in working alongside Everton,” he said. It is understood talks have taken place with Sainsbury’s.

He accused Everton and Keith Wyness of “playing games”.

larryneild