City leaders back Everton Stadium plans

Some of Liverpool’s leading figures have thrown their support behind Everton’s plans for a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock after the football club launched a public consultation into the plans last week.

Signatories including John Irving, chief executive of Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Knowledge Quarter chief executive Colin Sinclair, and Erika Rushton, chair of Baltic Creative CIC have all lent their support to the letter, which urges the public and civic leaders to back the project.

Everton’s plans will see a new stadium built at Bramley-Moore Dock while its former stadium at Goodison Park will be redeveloped for a community-focussed project, including health facilities, education, community meetings rooms, leisure, and housing.

The club launched the first stage of consultation last Thursday, although detailed designs of the stadium will not be released until a second round, due to take place next summer. Initial consultation will close on 2 December, and details can be found here.

Everton has already completed a lease agreement with Peel L&P to assume a 200-year lease on the dock, subject to the club receiving planning permission. The exact capacity of the stadium is still being looked at as the club works with architect Dan Meis to draw up detailed designs.

Meis said: “I believe that the historic fabric of the dock is a priceless asset that will help inform a state-of-the-art stadium unlike any other on the planet and one that will capture the magic and memory of Goodison Park. I am striving for a design that feels like it grew from the Docks and can simultaneously look like it is from the future and yet has always been there.”

The full text of the letter is below:

Dear Sir/Madam

The city of Liverpool faces a once-in-a-generation chance to deliver new opportunities and jobs with the creation of a new riverfront stadium for Everton Football Club within Peel Land and Property’s Liverpool Waters.

Our organisations, which together represent many of the city’s businesses, are working hard on behalf of the city to foster economic growth and wellbeing and believe this is an opportunity which must be grasped.

The launch of Everton’s public consultation into its plans is therefore an important opportunity for us to show why we are supporting the club’s proposals. We understand that some may have concerns because the stadium’s proposed location is within Liverpool’s World Heritage Site (WHS) and this public consultation will help initiate those discussions.

We firmly believe, however, that any concerns will be outweighed by the long-term and substantial benefits that will be delivered by the stadium and can be allayed through high quality, sympathetic design and a deep appreciation of the physical and cultural qualities of the site.

Bramley-Moore Dock is an under-utilised and partially derelict site with no access to members of the public. Everton’s plans would bring this site back to life, creating tens of thousands of jobs, including training and apprenticeships for the youth of the city and the city region, and would accelerate the regeneration of the North Liverpool Waterfront, becoming a hugely important asset for the city, along with the Ten Streets area.

The plans would also lead to the creation of new community-focused assets in Liverpool 4 that would both directly and indirectly benefit some of our poorest neighbourhoods. The positive impact of the stadium would, in fact, reverberate across the entire city region.

We believe it is essential that Everton Football Club remain in Liverpool. And we think that Bramley-Moore Dock, part of Peel Land and Property’s Liverpool Waters development, is the right location for the stadium.

Everyone in Liverpool, regardless of their footballing allegiance, should back the plans. They are right for the business community, right for our residents, for the city and for the City Region. Please support them

Bill Addy, Chief Executive, Liverpool BID Company, and Chair, Liverpool Visitor Economy Network

Elaine Bowker, Chief Executive, City of Liverpool College

Chris Brown, Director, Marketing Liverpool

Paul Cherpeau, Chief Executive, Liverpool and Sefton Chamber of Commerce

Steven Connolly, Estates Director, Liverpool ONE

Brian Connor, General Manager, Rum Warehouse & Titanic Hotel

Ellen Cutler, Director, Invest Liverpool

Sue Grindrod, Chief Executive, Royal Albert Dock, and Chair, Liverpool Waterfront Partnership

John Hall, Chief Executive, Professional Liverpool

Asif Hamid, Chair, Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership

John Irving, Chief Executive, Liverpool John Lennon Airport

Mark Lawler, Managing Director, Baltic Creative CIC

Darran Lawless, Development Director, Peel Land and Property

Marcus Magee, Chair, Liverpool Hospitality Association

Claire McColgan, Director, Culture Liverpool

Frank McKenna, Chief Executive, Downtown in Business

Prof Gerald Pillay, Vice Chancellor, Liverpool Hope University

Bob Pratty, Chief Executive, ACC Liverpool

Erika Rushton, Chair, Baltic Creative CIC

Colin Sinclair, CEO, Knowledge Quarter Liverpool

Andy Snell, Head of Strategic Partnerships and International Trade, Wirral Chamber of Commerce

Max Steinberg, Chief Executive, Liverpool Vision.