More councillors join fight against Everton FC’s stadium move

Jun 5 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

SEFTON councillors voted unanimously last night to join Liverpool Council in opposing plans to relocating Everton to Kirkby.

At a meeting in Southport, councillors were told there is significant concern about the development’s impact on shops in Sefton.

The retail part of the scheme – which includes a Tesco superstore among 50,000 sq m of retail space – will be twice the size of Bootle’s shopping offer and half the size of Southport’s.

Sefton will now ask Government Office North West to call the application in for a public inquiry and will formally oppose the scheme.

A Sefton planning officer said removing the mezzanine floor and thereby reducing floor space had done nothing to stem fears over shoppers being lost to the Knowsley-based mall.

He added: “We would normally wish to support the regeneration proposals of our neighbours. The position in this development is the level of retail floor space that’s to be provided.

“The scale of floor space will certainly have impacts in Sefton.

“It’s clearly with some regret we have to recommend to you that we should object.”

Just ahead of the vote to follow the officers’ recommendation, Molyneux representative Cllr Jack Colbert asked committee members to take further action.

He said: “We’ve obviously got to condemn Knowsley for the way they have treated this application.

“I wanted you to condemn Knowsley for the way they have railroaded the application.”