Everton Football Club’s New Stadium Rejected by Local Council
Everton Football Club’s plans to move to a new stadium from their old one in Liverpool have been rejected, according to sources. The football club was hoping to relocate to a new £400 million facility inside of a larger new shopping centre.
If plans had been approved, the club would have moved from their current facility at Goodison Park to a stadium with a capacity of 50,000 seats in Kirkby. The stadium in Kirkby also features a Tesco superstore and shopping centre.
Today, however, a club inside said that the government had rejected the move, and a more official announcement of the rejection will be given next Thursday. The move would have brought 7,000 new jobs to Kirkby, which is currently dealing with large amounts of poverty.
The major reason for the rejection is expected to be related to the fact that the move would take money away from centres in Merseyside. Local government departments and communities rejecting the proposal based on this is still unvarified.
A spokesperson for Tesco said Wednesday night that there had been no formal notification of rejection, but that they were expecting to hear by the morning. At that time they had no comment until the arrival of a formal notification.
Ian Morris, member of the Kirkby Residents’ Action Group, expressed is opposition to the move and said that the rejection was fantastic news, stating that he understands the football club will have a rough time with no new stadium, but that the opposition campaign had the town’s best interests at heart.
He continued stating that many of the residents felt the stadium would have destroyed the quaint town bringing in huge retail development as well as a negative effect on the community.