Last chance for Liverpool FC stadium opponents to block plan

Nov 2 2007 by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post

Image of Liverpool FC's new £300m planned stadium at Stanley Park _320

THE revised planning application for Liverpool FC’s new £400m stadium, on Stanley Park, will give opponents one last chance to wage their battle against the scheme.

The club already has consent to go ahead with its original proposals, with that permission valid until 2011.

But new owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett decided on an all-new design which will be given its first public airing at a special meeting on Tuesday on the city council’s planning committee.

Planning managers are recom- mending the go-ahead be given to the scheme, with backing from a number of major organisations.

The club, though, will have to fight its way through a long list of people and local groups who want the scheme to be rejected.

Cabe, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, has applauded the iconic plans and describes the proposed new Kop as a powerful idea. But Cabe wants to see a more elegant transition between the new stadium at historic Stanley Park.

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The government’s Environment Agency has not opposed the scheme and Sport England also supports the stadium plan. The Northwest Regional Development Agency has also sent in a message of support.

Friends of Stanley Park have submitted a lengthy objection to the scheme, mainly on the grounds that a new football stadium in the Victorian park clashes with the city’s own planning blueprint which designates the area as parkland.

The friends say a 21st-century stadium inside a 19th-century Grade II-listed park is not an enhancement of the park.

Another objection has been lodged by Priory Area Residents Association who say the park acts as the green space for the densely populated area of narrow terraced streets.

“To deprive the young and old of access to this open space is in complete opposition to current policies where people are being encouraged to take more exercise,” say the friends.

“Normal life in Anfield comes to a complete standstill when there is a football match and the increased number of spectators (from the current 45,000 to 60,000) will generate more traffic on roads which can barely cope at present,” the group adds.

Members of the planning committee will spend several hours touring the Anfield area on Tuesday, prior to heading to a meeting just before midday on Tuesday at the Oakmere Conference Centre, in Cherry Lane, Anfield, where the two sides in the battle for Stanley Park will fight their corners.

larryneild