Jim Hancock: Too late to share?

Apr 7 2008 by Jim Hancock, Liverpool Daily Post

TWO snowy mornings made my weekend special. Yesterday’s was down to nature, but on Saturday my losing streak at Aintree was broken by a decent return on the third horse in the National.

I was at the course for two days and losing a few quid doesn’t matter. The thing for me is that, at the National meeting, nearly everyone has a smile on their faces. It’s partly meeting old friends, but also I think there’s a great sense of pride that every year Merseyside puts on a great show for a world-wide audience.

The meeting also provides plenty of opportunity to find out what’s going on around our lively political scene.

So it was that I was distracted from the sport of National Hunt racing by a matter relating to football. I want to share it with you but feel some trepidation because the subject is not new, has been argued over for years, and rouses great passion – a shared stadium for Liverpool and Everton.

The official position is, of course, that the scheme is dead in the water, and most fans don’t want it. Everton are off to Kirkby and Liverpool are building a new stadium on Stanley Park. End of story – or is it?

Apart from the clubs, the North- west Development Agency has always taken a lively interest in this controversy. Its duty is to back regeneration schemes across the region and broker deals between private and public sector partners.

They have never made any secret of their desire for a shared stadium, which would then draw in funding for improving housing and the public realm around the north Liverpool scheme. But that approach was rebuffed by the clubs who plan to go their own way with two new stadia.

However, the trackside talk at Aintree was whether that remains a realistic position for the clubs to take. The feud at Liverpool between co- owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett is hardly conducive to rapid progress on the new ground in Stanley Park. As far as Everton is concerned, the bid for planning permission is now unlikely to go before Knowsley’s planning committee until the summer, against the background of mounting opposition.

Victory for three First For Kirkby candidates (opposed to the stadium project) in the local elections wouldn’t shake the large Labour majority, but it would embarrass the council leadership.

They are more likely to be worried by the growing possibility of the Government calling in the plans, in the light of sustained concerns from neighbouring local councils like Sefton and St Helens.

They are worried that the associated retail development will damage trade in their areas.

So is it conceivable that with cold winds blowing around the national economy, the concept of a shared stadium will force its way back on to the agenda?

Will the RDA, like a late challenger at Aintree, come up on the rails to provide a way out of the impasse?