VIEW FROM THE BLUE

Responses to 'The Loop' debate

By Lyndon Lloyd :  30/07/2007 :  Comments (26) :

As expected, the examination of the "tunnel loop" site as an alternative to Kirkby or staying at Goodison Park has provoked the same mixed reaction — running the gamut from outright derision to unbridled enthusiasm — that greeted Warren Bradley when he proposed the location the week before last.

The article was a response to repeated assertions on various message forums and websites that putting the site off Scotland Rd forward as an alternative was ridiculous, a non-starter, a total red herring. I wanted to demonstrate that the site could sustain a 50,000 stadium development, that its apparent access limitations could be addressed, and that ways of funding the construction through a wider regeneration scheme were possible. I never proclaimed the "tunnel loop" to be the silver bullet — maybe the piece should have been entitled "The Loop Could Be Done" — because I don't by any stretch of imagination have most of the answers let alone all of them. And how could I?

As many of the reader comments observed, the piece is littered with ifs, buts, maybes and potentiallys but that's because I'm not privy to the financial or urban planning details being discussed around the potential for this location and never pretended otherwise.

I'm not an architect but the fact that Trevor Skempton, who is one by trade, believes it is viable and that Bestway's Head of Property, a self-described "developer", believes it's viable tells me that a stadium could be built inside the tunnel loop.

I'm not an economist but both the Kings Dock project and the Kirkby Project — both of which involved a manageable contribution from Everton FC — tell me that a funding package involving the tunnel loop site and the area south of the Kingsway could be put together to make the loop location viable.

Your club have presented you with just one option on the Kirkby Project ballot and have provided no evidence to suggest that they have given the sites put forward by LCC more than a cursory look before ruling them out due to the lack of a commercial partner. Furthermore, they have been locked in an exclusivity agreement with Knowsley Borough Council and Tesco since December, prohibiting anyone from engaging in discussions with them about proposals for alternative sites, presumably until after the upcoming vote.

Your local media has been all too keen to push the Kirkby option on the club's behalf but no one has seriously investigated the viability of a site like the "loop" and asked, "would that be a way to keep Everton in the city if the right commercial partners and funding options could be found?"

In this vaccuum of serious discussion of viable alteratives, can the fans really say that when it comes time to mark an "x" on their ballot paper that all options have been exhausted? And does it not behoove a site like ours to give a voice to those who have heavy scepticism of the Kirkby option, who be heartbroken if the club left the city and feel like they are being railroaded into a quick fix when other altenatives might exist?

It may yet prove that those of us who believe that the "tunnel loop" is a viable alternative are naïve in the extreme and that we've had the wool pulled over our eyes by a council desperate to save face — although you'd have to question why Mr Bradley would put his political career on the line and risk alienating half of the city's voters by seeking only to derail the Kirkby Project and then having nothing to offer as a contingency. My sense thus far is that Bradley and LCC are serious about delivering an alternative proposal — and you're free to speculate to what ends — and that Bestway are not mere pawns — willing or otherwise ?in a game of political posturing, wasting precious time and resources coming up with a dead-end proposal that would never come to fruition.

In the words of the afore-mentioned Head of Property, Malcolm Carter, "I come at this from a neutral perspective and with an open mind and an open heart." He and his firm may stand to gain from any stadium project for Everton FC but they're not dependent on it by any means. The site they currently occupy already serves them very well.

This is an emotional and divisive issue — the future of our club is dependent on its outcome, after all. It's quite possible that you will mark your ballot without knowing all the facts about any of the options that exist, Kirkby included. Fans should also prepare themselves for the very real possibility that a clear picture of how a potential stadium at the "tunnel loop" will be funded and by whom may not be available to them when it comes time to vote.

That will make the decision all the more agonising and difficult — and it may benefit you to delay marking and posting that ballot as long as possible — but your gut instinct will probably tip you either way.

Is the "tunnel loop" location ideal? Of course not, but in their current state Everton as a club don't have "ideal" available as an option anymore. "Ideal" was the Kings Dock. "Ideal" is Liverpool's "New Anfield" development. Kirkby offers land and funding but comes with the trade-off of being outside of Liverpool and 6 miles from the club's roots. If you don't care where Everton play, then you already know how to vote.

The Scotland Road site is in the perfect location in that it is in Everton ward, close to Liverpool city centre and in an area ripe for the next wave of urban regeneration. But it comes with significant trade-offs, not least the tight dimensions of the site and the fact that it is surrounded by roads. If you believe that these are just obstacles that can be overcome by some of the suggestions made in the article (does having a road running under the stadium bother Manchster United?) and some architectual imagination, if you believe that Everton belong in Liverpool, and if LCC can deliver a solid financial proposal then you know which way you want to vote.

Ultimately, we as fans can only speculate and muse about possibilities and that is all the article set out to do. The onus on proving that the "tunnel loop" or any other site in Liverpool is viable rests with Liverpool City Council. The onus for providing solid cost estimates and long-term benefit projections at Kirkby is on the Everton board.

The decision, however, rests with those eligible to vote and the more information from which to draw and to make that decision the better.

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