Everton pushes ahead with stadium redevelopment

Everton football club is to press ahead with plans for a new waterfront stadium which could see over 200 homes built on the site of its existing ground, after securing public support.

In a consultation exercise which the club claimed was the largest ever undertaken in Liverpool, the club said 96% of the 43,000 responses supported the plans for the new stadium, and 92% supported the plans for the mixed use redevelopment of the existing Goodison Park ground.

The club said the support received means it will press ahead with submission of a planning application for the new ground and “legacy” development of Goodison before the end of the year.

According to the Liverpool Echo, Everton’s plans for Goodison are for up to 48 houses and 160 apartments to be built in addition to offices, shops, healthcare and education facilities and additional homes for supported living. Apartments would be built in towers of anything up to nine storeys.

Everton’s plans involve the relocating the club to a new 52,000-seater stadium built in Bramley Moore dock on Liverpool’s waterfront. It will form part of Peel Waters’ £5.5bn plans to regenerate the city’s waterfront.

Everton claims the stadium will provide a £1bn boost to the city’s economy and provide up to 15,000 jobs.

Professor Denise Barrett-Baxendale, chief executive of Everton, said the consultation results were a “huge vote of confidence in our continuing plans”.

Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, said: “Everton has carried out a brilliant public consultation to ensure everyone has had the opportunity to have their say on their proposals. Their plans for Bramley-Moore Dock and Goodison Park, alongside our regeneration ideas for Ten Streets and Walton, have the potential to deliver a huge long-lasting economic and cultural boost for our communities in North Liverpool”.