The new stadium - Severe protest
Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2004 12:07 pmPROTESTERS against Liverpool Football Club's plans to relocate to a new stadium in Stanley Park yesterday handed in a 10,000-strong petition against the scheme.
Joe Kenny, chairman of the Anfield Regeneration Action Committee, wheeled in the weighty evidence to Millennium House, home of the city council planning department.
Council planners are due to consider LFC's 60,000-seat stadium plan later in the summer.
The arrival of the petition came just hours after the Daily Post revealed the view of senior Merseyside economist Peter Stoney that Stanley Park was the wrong location for Liverpool's new stadium.
Mr Stoney, research fellow at the University of Liverpool, said the Central Docks area was a more suitable location for the ground.
Both LFC and the city council have declined to comment on his view.
Last night Mr Kenny said: "Today the people of Anfield delivered over 10,000 individual objections as well as an official statement outlining the reasons why the city council must not approve Liverpool Football Club's planning application.
"The official letter carries over 100 planning objections. In the light of this, we expect Liverpool City Council to reject LFC's plans as they are in total contradiction with the council's own planning policy.
"If passed, Liverpool City Council would be acting illegally and the individual councillors could well be culpable.
"We would seek to have the councillors who vote through this application removed from office on the grounds that they would be acting ultra vires (beyond their powers)."
LFC ruled out 17 sites across Merseyside before deciding on Stanley Park as the location for its new stadium.
Individual reports, included in LFC's application, were drawn up on industrial parks, green spaces and former dockland areas, but all were rejected due to problems of size, transport access or because they were already earmarked for other projects.
For me it would be a disaster if we didnt get our new stadium.
Joe Kenny, chairman of the Anfield Regeneration Action Committee, wheeled in the weighty evidence to Millennium House, home of the city council planning department.
Council planners are due to consider LFC's 60,000-seat stadium plan later in the summer.
The arrival of the petition came just hours after the Daily Post revealed the view of senior Merseyside economist Peter Stoney that Stanley Park was the wrong location for Liverpool's new stadium.
Mr Stoney, research fellow at the University of Liverpool, said the Central Docks area was a more suitable location for the ground.
Both LFC and the city council have declined to comment on his view.
Last night Mr Kenny said: "Today the people of Anfield delivered over 10,000 individual objections as well as an official statement outlining the reasons why the city council must not approve Liverpool Football Club's planning application.
"The official letter carries over 100 planning objections. In the light of this, we expect Liverpool City Council to reject LFC's plans as they are in total contradiction with the council's own planning policy.
"If passed, Liverpool City Council would be acting illegally and the individual councillors could well be culpable.
"We would seek to have the councillors who vote through this application removed from office on the grounds that they would be acting ultra vires (beyond their powers)."
LFC ruled out 17 sites across Merseyside before deciding on Stanley Park as the location for its new stadium.
Individual reports, included in LFC's application, were drawn up on industrial parks, green spaces and former dockland areas, but all were rejected due to problems of size, transport access or because they were already earmarked for other projects.
For me it would be a disaster if we didnt get our new stadium.
