Comment: What happened to co-operation?

Jun 5 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

ONLY two days ago, the Daily Post reported plans to set up a “super cabinet” which would involve all six councils in the Liverpool city region joining forces to give them a greater voice in both regional and national affairs.

Yet now, two of those councils – Liver- pool and Knowsley – are at each other’s throats over Everton FC’s plan to reloc- ate to Kirkby, which involves the creat- ion of a Tesco superstore and 50 shops linked with the 50,000-seater stadium.

Liverpool councillors have formally objected to the £400m scheme on the grounds that it breaks planning policies.

This, unsurprisingly, has not gone down well in Knowsley, who have retaliated by saying they will investigate whether “due process” has been followed in formulating the protest.

It is the very scale of the project which has led to the falling-out between the various Merseyside authorities, with Sefton, West Lancashire, and St Helens also opposing the scheme.

It is now beginning to look increasingly likely that a public inquiry will be held into the project, which – even if it were to approve it eventually – will lead to significant delays which might prompt one or more of the relevant parties to walk away from it.

Knowsley Council’s planning committee will meet on Monday and officials have recommended the application be approved, stating the regeneration benefits outweigh the conflicts with planning policies.

However, the row between the authorities has become increasingly personal, with Knowsley questioning whether Liverpool council leader Warren Bradley and opposition leader Joe Anderson, both season ticket holders at Goodison Park, should have been allowed to address the committee and request it object to the plans.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this issue, such attacks by leading local authority figures on one another show that old habits die hard, and hardly bode well for the brave new dawn of regional co-operation we were promised only a few days ago.