EVERTON FC yesterday opened up a new battlefront in its campaign to relocate to Kirkby.
Lawyers took Liverpool City Council to appeal over its decision to refuse Everton’s proposals for 74 family homes on its former training ground in West Derby.
If successful, the appeal will net Everton 10% of the funds it needs as part of the £400m Destination Kirkby proposals.
However, the plans drew a storm of protest from people living around Bellefield training ground when they went before the council last June. Some 220 letters of objection claimed the site would cause a significant increase in traffic and result in danger on Sandforth Road.
Yesterday, Cllr David Irving, a West Derby member and chairman of the planning committee, told the appeal that some 2,000 schoolchildren used the road each day and an estimated extra 140 cars would create a real danger.
But Frances Patterson, QC, told the appeal hearing at Holiday Inn, Lime Street, the plans were “essential” for the stadium and would stop the area being “left to languish”.
She said: “The concept is to realise the value of Bellefield through a sale of the site with planning permission for residential development and deploy the proceeds of the sale into the new stadium.
“Although the proceeds realised now will be less than when the application was submitted, they will still provide a valuable and essential contribution to the new stadium development.
“It is an essential part of the capital contribution on the part of the club . . . just over 10% of the capital required by Everton.”
As in Kirkby, where a public planning inquiry is determining whether the 50,000-seater should be built, Miss Patterson argued that the regeneration benefits to Kirkby were enough to persuade planning inspector Karen Ridge the Bellefield development should go ahead.
She said: “It is proven the new stadia development bring with them regeneration benefits.
“The New Housing Special Planning Document allows new development if it has demonstrable regeneration benefits . . . in a strategic investment area.
“It does not confine these developments exclusively within the city boundaries.”
She also told the appeal chairperson that a development of large family homes, some of up to six bedrooms, would help Liverpool meet planning requirements under the Regional Spacial Strategy. Liverpool needs schemes like this, she suggested, as it was slipping further behind its targets to build larger homes.
However, files put before the appeal by David Phillips, a property consultant backing Liverpool council, disputed the first part of this claim. He said: “In my opinion, there can be absolutely no doubt that this document is intended to apply solely to the administrative boundaries of Liverpool.”
Developing land in West Derby to help kick-start regeneration in Knowsley is not on, he argues.
Martin Robson, a senior planning officer at Liverpool, tried to provide evidence that the council was not slipping behind its targets to build bigger homes.
He said: “We have big outline planning applications that we would expect to see a significantly higher proportion of family homes.”
Therefore, he said, the Bellefield development was not necessary to help the city comply with regional guidance.
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