LIBERALS FIGHT TO SAVE STANLEY PARK - LIVERPOOL
FC's plans for a new 60,000-seater stadium on Stanley Park were re-confirmed by the city's planning committee after a marathon meeting
Opponents of the scheme immediately vowed to seek a judicial review to overturn the decision and force the club to look for a new site away from built-up areas.
The ground capacity will be restricted to 45,000 until an agreed park-and-ride and controlled parking plan have been introduced.
Planning officer Mike Burchnall said the scheme was essentially the same one approved by the planning committee in 2004, but the club re-submitted it because of changes to national and regional planning policies.
The committee was told that because it was essentially a fresh look at a previously agreed application, councillors had the option to refuse permission.
More than a dozen local people lodged objections to the stadium plan and called for the council to review its support for the scheme.
But chairman Cllr Lady Doreen Jones recommended that permission should be given and she won unanimous support - even though only 4 members of the planning committee sat through the hearing and the joke oppositioon Labour Group was missing
Once the club receives its planning consent, there will be a 90-day stand-off during which the approval can be legally challenged.
Last night former councillor Joe Kenny of the Anfield Regeneration Action Committee, and a staunch critic of the Stanley Park plan, vowed: "We can guarantee a legal challenge. As soon as the decision is published our lawyers are ready and waiting, and we know we have a strong case."
A number of local residents spoke of the problems of living within the shadow of a major football stadium on match days, from parking chaos and anti-social behaviour, to being "virtual prisoners" in their homes.
The biggest complaint is the proposed use of between a third and a half of the Victorian park as a new home for the club.
Mike Butler, secretary of the Anfield action group and Liberal Party Candidate for Anfield, accused the club of "moving the goalposts" by going for a 45,000-seater stadium.
"It will cease to be a public park once the stadium is built," he said.
In the original planning application, first lodged in 2003, the club included a timetable showing that the new stadium would open for business this May.
At that time the facility was scheduled to cost £80m, but the costs have now at least doubled due mainly to the increased cost of steel.
The key question for the club now is to find the private finance which will help make the stadium plan a reality as many fans have become increasingly sceptical about it ever going ahead.
Liberal Party Leader Cllr Steve Radford, who lodged an objection, said: "Now that this application has come before the committee again, why doesn't the council look at the option of a fresh look at the whole scheme?, he urged the commitee look at sites at the end of motorways for example the East Lancs Road and Speke rather than build in the most densely populated part of Liverpool
The committee also granted permission to the club to dismantle the "Monkey House" bandstand and re-erect it elsewhere on the park, and also dismantle the bowling green pavilion for re-building also on the park.
