Laing O'Rourke is the main contractor for the scheme. Credit: via planning documents

Everton’s £500m stadium dream moves closer to reality  

Liverpool City Council has earmarked the club’s proposed 53,000-capacity stadium for approval, setting aside conservation groups’ concerns about the harm it could cause to the listed Bramley-Moore Dock. 

The council is meeting on 23 February to discuss the £500m project and, if it decides to approve the plans, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government will have 21 days to review the application because of its scale. 

If both parties give the project the green light, main contractor Laing O’Rourke hopes to start construction as early as this spring. 

In a 200-page report to the council’s planning committee, officers acknowledged that the project, which sits within Peel L&P’s Liverpool Waters development, would cause “varying degrees of harm to heritage assets and would thereby contravene heritage policies of the development plan”. 

However, officers also said the project would have “significant public benefits in terms of the transformational regeneration benefits the stadium would bring to North Liverpool, the city and the wider region”. 

In a statement to supporters ahead of next week’s meeting, Everton FC chief executive Professor Denise Barrett-Baxendale said: “Our stadium director Colin Chong and I will be presenting the club’s case at the meeting next week to underline how important this stadium is, not only to our football club but also to our city, our region and our country at such an unprecedented time in our history.” 

Everton West Stand Updated

Construction could start as early as spring

Plans for the stadium, designed by US architect Dan Meis, were first submitted in December 2019. 

However, last September, Everton lodged tweaked proposals, which included reducing the overall height of the stadium, following concerns from conservation bodies about the negative impact the development could have on the dock, which sits within Liverpool’s Unesco World Heritage site.  

The same month, Historic England called for the plan to be refused by the council due to the “substantial harm” caused to the conservation area by infilling the listed dock.  

The topic of development in and around Liverpool’s docklands and wider World Heritage Site, has sparked much debate among those who believe Liverpool’s Unesco status is good for the city and those who believe it holds back its growth. The objections to Everton’s proposal, which is viewed by many as critical to the economic growth of the city as a whole, sparked anger among heritage protectionists. 

Last September, the city council published a heritage framework intended to guide development within the protected zone. It aims to strike a balance between continuing redevelopment of the North Docklands area of the city centre, and conservation of the many historic buildings located within it, in order to satisfy the European conservation body, which is reviewing Liverpool’s Unesco World Heritage Status. 

Speaking last autumn, Henri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said: “Historic England’s reading of the requirements of the World Heritage Status, which has already served its purpose in establishing [Liverpool’s] visitor brand, shows that the time may have come when the disadvantages [of the status] for the city outweigh any residual benefits it brings.” 

Everton, working alongside consultancies CBRE and Simetrica, estimate that the stadium project could deliver at least a £1.3bn boost to the economy, create more than 15,000 jobs and attract 1.4m visitors to Liverpool. 

Pattern Design is the sole architect for the project going forward after Meis Architects, which drew up concept designs, was dropped from the project team last summer.

Planit-IE is the landscape architect for the project and CBRE is the planning consultant.

Your Comments

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Biggest development in the North- Liverpool Waters

By Anonymous

This lit up on the world famous waterfront is going to be some sight on the skyline.

By Anonymous

This is amazing! Please let it get built

By David

English Heritage will find some way of messing this up. Been dragging on for years.

By Wirralwanderer

Great project! The land owned by Guernsey based company Peel increases hugely in value. Plus, the majority of jobs created in the long run by this project will be zero hour, precarious roles in the hospitality industry. Sounds like a scheme that will benefit society as a whole in the long run

By London Lego builder

English Heritage and UNESCO need to show imagination and the flexibility to think outside the box. The wider economic and social benefits of this to the whole city region and therefore to the country are truly enormous. This will open up the north Liverpool waterfront allowing many more visitors to appreciate the heritage of the docks. This is the northernmost, most peripheral dock within the WHS, with a dubious neighbouring to its north that will be screened by these proposals. 98% of the heritage assets within the WHS are extremely well preserved. Show some imagination EH and UNESCO, and help Liverpool continue to grow whilst opening up the north docks with this transformative project.

By Roscoe

The knock on effect from this is going to be fantastic, the waterfront is looking mighty fine atm proud of living in such a wonderful looking city instead of a City that excepts and build anything and everything just to prove a point for what looking rather ugly and miserable ..No thanks!

By PDN.

Beautiful love it , will look fantastic on the world famous waterfront with beautiful ships .

By Anonymous

This building might become a vital part in saving precious parts of the historic city from rising sea levels

By Anonymous

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