A CAVALCADE of a hundred vehicles brought Kirkby town centre to a standstill on Saturday, as campaigners continued their protest against plans for Everton’s £400m stadium.

The go-slow was organised by 1st 4 Kirkby, in conjunction with Kirkby Residents Action Group (KRAG), Kirkby Traders Association (KTA), Keep Everton In Our City (KEIOC) and the newly-formed Women for Kirkby's Future (WKF).

The protest attracted residents and traders opposed to the plans.

Earlier this month, Knowsley councillors gave planning permission for the scheme, which includes a Tesco superstore, a 50,000-seat stadium for Everton, 50 shops, hotel, offices and 3,500 car parking places.

Councillors said the scheme’s regeneration benefits were too strong to ignore.

But Tony Barton, chair of 1st 4 Kirkby, said their action highlighted the huge numbers of people opposed to the stadium plan, and promised the event would be the first of many over the coming months.

He said: “We were really pleased with the turnout, particularly because it wasn’t well advertised but still attracted so many residents, traders and objectors from neighbouring boroughs.

“We want to raise the issues surrounding the new stadium. The council, in their ‘wisdom’, decided to give planning permission – and the people of Kirkby aren’t happy.

“Of course we want regeneration, and we welcome Tesco, but we want them to locate to the current town centre.”

He added: “We support residents who aren’t happy, 70 homes are going to be demolished.

“There are residents who fought for a housing co- operative years ago and have a lovely community and now the council want to destroy that, even the MPs who fought for the homes in the first place.

“We have no political aspirations, we just want to give an alternative view. Residents want to keep their green and open spaces and their homes.

“Kirkby was never designed to cope with the traffic that will be generated by the scheme, we just don’t have the infrastructure, it won’t cope with the predicted 1.5m visitors a year.

“We’ve had fantastic support and we will have more events in the next two months. We hope MPs will demand a call-in of the decision.”

Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and West Lancashire councils opposed the plan at the planning meeting because it breaches town centre and retail policies.

Representatives from Tesco, Everton chief executive Keith Wyness and local businessmen from Kirkby all spoke in favour of the scheme at the planning meeting, which approved the project and which was passed by 20-to-1 in favour.

The proposal has been sent to the Government office North West, where a decision will soon be made whether to recommend Secretary of State for Communities, Hazel Blears, calls a public inquiry.