North West Minister Phil Woolas has been charged with reviving the project.

Cllr Round said: “We welcomed the opportunity to meet with Phil Woolas, Minister for the North-West and senior colleagues from all the public sector agencies for the North-West.

“We discussed options for how we are going to regenerate Kirkby and I felt as if we made significant progress. We all agreed that we need to maintain the momentum to ensure that the people of Kirkby have a town centre that they can be proud of.

“At this stage, we are not ruling a stadium in or out of the plans but our main emphasis is on regeneration.”

Last month, Communities secretary John Denham decided the £400m Destination Kirkby project would breach shopping policies.

Ministers sensed a chink of light with the inspector's conclusion that it was the sheer number of accompanying shops – not the Tesco store – that broke the guidelines.

But it is understood Everton believe Mr Brown’s intervention will not change the realities which remain, in the words of club chairman Bill Kenwright, that the “book is closed” on Kirkby.