Comment: Everton stadium decision delay a bitter blow

Aug 7 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

THE Government’s decision last night to call in Everton’s Kirkby stadium plan for a public inquiry will come as a devastating blow to the football club, Knowsley council and supermarket giant Tesco.

The controversial “Destination Kirkby” project could now flounder – not for any of the reasons cited by its opponents, but because the lengthy delay it will cause threatens to make the £400m plan economically unviable.

That nearby local authorities objected to this scheme shows a real lack of joined-up thinking. Knowsley council had considered the application and worked tirelessly with both club and retailer to ensure it was a development to benefit the community and wider borough; those planners must feel very let down by the actions of their neighbours.

Although a loud and vociferous minority of Everton supporters are opposed to the move, it should not be forgotten that the club was transparent enough to allow a vote which came out in favour of the move to Kirkby.

Some Kirkby residents also protested that their community would be redeveloped beyond all recognition, so perhaps the decision to call in this scheme is understandable.

It is regrettable, however, that it has taken the Government so long to announce a decision that we were promised weeks ago.

Surely Everton, Tesco and Knowsley – to say nothing of those objectors and supporters who have been desperate to learn the outcome – deserved a better service?

If this scheme fails because the public inquiry ultimately rules against it, then that is an acceptable part of the democratic process.

However, any further unreasonable delay would be unjust in the extreme. The worst of all possible worlds would be for the inquiry to green-light this plan, only for the time that has elapsed to have killed it as a viable project.