Lord Heseltine backs Bramley-Moore Dock project

Monday, 11 March, 2019 31comments  |  Jump to most recent

Former Deputy Prime Minister and long-term champion of regeneration in Liverpool, Lord Michael Heseltine, has backed Everton Football Club's proposed move to a new dockland location and described it as a “golden opportunity to bring lasting change to the north of the city”.

The football club is on track to submit a planning application later this year for a state-of-the-art stadium on Bramley-Moore Dock, a largely abandoned piece of dockland in the north of Liverpool which forms part of Peel Land & Property's Liverpool Waters site. The Club plans to redevelop its existing Goodison Park home to create new community assets after the relocation, building on the award-winning work of its charitable trust, Everton in the Community.

Lord Heseltine's comments in support of the proposed move come on the eve of the MIPIM international property convention in Cannes, France, which is being attended by Everton Chief Executive Professor Denise Barrett-Baxendale and Stadium Development Director Colin Chong, where the Club will be discussing its proposals with global influencers from the property and construction sector.

Lord Heseltine said: “The involvement of a major football club like Everton as the spearhead of this development is hugely beneficial to the renewal process. This is not just for the immediate environments around the stadium facility but is of regional importance to Liverpool because of the wider economic impact.

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“There's no question that taking declining areas, or even semi-derelict areas like Liverpool's north docks, and giving them a new lease of life, meets every test of regeneration. First of all, it reverses the decline; secondly, it uses brownfield sites as opposed to green sites; and it tends to create jobs and investment where people actually are - as opposed to people having to travel long distances. It can simply change the whole atmosphere of a place.

“All that investment combines to create an atmosphere in which other businesses want to be involved and other growth projects emerge. Everton's plans would change the whole tone and attitude towards the local area, so would serve many purposes beyond the primary sporting purpose.

“It should be remembered that this area of north Liverpool has been in decline for many, many decades so it strikes me that this is an opportunity which the city of Liverpool cannot afford to miss.”

Research carried out by international property consultancy CBRE indicates the stadium project would lead to a £1bn boost to the local economy, the creation of 15,000 new jobs for local people (12,000 during the construction phase), and deliver an estimated additional 1.5m visitors to the city.

These benefits are in addition to the development of a series of community assets which will combine to leave a lasting legacy at Goodison Park once the playing side of the club has vacated its home of 126 years.

On Lord Heseltine's comments, Everton's Chief Executive, Professor Denise Barrett-Baxendale, said: “Naturally it is pleasing to receive support from key national figures. To get such an endorsement from somebody who not only understands regeneration but has a deep understanding of urban regeneration in the context of our home city is all the more noteworthy and welcome.

“Lord Heseltine is a great supporter and advocate for the city and we are very pleased that he shares our vision and recognises the broad regenerative impact our proposals will have.”

The backing of Lord Heseltine comes as senior officials from the Club prepare to attend the MIPIM property conference in Cannes, France, as part of the Liverpool City Region official delegation.

MIPIM (Le marché international des professionnels de l'immobilier) has become the largest an international property event in the world, and is hosted in Cannes each March. It includes an exhibition area, networking events and conference sessions over a period of 4 days.

 

Reader Comments (31)

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Clarence Yurcan
1 Posted 11/03/2019 at 19:57:06
About 10 years ago, I worked for a spell for Lord Heseltine's media company, Haymarket Media, which also has operations in the USA.

IIRC, Haymarket publishes FourFourTwo magazine (sadly not the Haymarket property I wrote for) and in the lobby they always had free issues of Haymarket publications available to employees. I always picked up FourFourTwo. Other classic Haymarket titles also include Renal and Urology News!

Karl Masters
2 Posted 11/03/2019 at 20:22:15
How long before that Jonathan Tasker bloke comes on here and says there won’t be a new stadium?
Brian Harrison
3 Posted 11/03/2019 at 20:34:59
I have to admit that I was very skeptical when Michael Heseltine came here after the riots to try and help the City, but he did a great job. You couldn't get anyone as far removed from a working class Scouser as Heseltine, but he definitely got what we are about. Pity he still isn't the minister for Merseyside as he was back then.

So it doesnt surprise me that he should champion Evertons new ground move.
What I am surprised at is after having lots of consultations which were all very well received, why we have to have further consultations.

Kieran Kinsella
4 Posted 11/03/2019 at 20:35:00
I misread this news on The Echo earlier and thought it said "Heseltine Bans new Everton stadium".

My reaction was "Typical Tories. Ghost of Thatcher lives on."

Johnny Rainford
5 Posted 11/03/2019 at 22:33:37
Remember it well, Brian. That whole period with the Riots then the regeneration still fascinates me tbh. The Tories gave up on Liverpool and wanted "managed decline". As you say, Hezza was one of the few who thought the city still had an important past/future; thus people should listen to him on this.
Michael Kenrick
6 Posted 11/03/2019 at 22:35:52
Funny, Kieran.

I missed it first time around but just recently watched [what should have been called The Downfall of] "Margaret" on Amazon Prime. It's a BBC TV Movie from 2009 and a very impressive cast of mostly very familiar Brit actors, all cowering toadily while plotting behind her back.

Lyndsay Duncan was a little too attractive as Maggie but Ian MacDiarmid (I'd never heard of him) was brilliant as hubby Dennis, and there were some other excellent portrayals of all the other much hated Tory Grandees of the time, including Oliver Cotton playing Michael Heseltine.

It brought back some very scary memories. Let the hate mail flow...

Darren Murphy
7 Posted 11/03/2019 at 22:52:50
Michael... Lindsay Duncan is a lot more than hotter to play that ole battle axe, lol.

Not my type but agreed mate.

Rob Marsh
8 Posted 12/03/2019 at 13:13:06
"Lord Heseltine backs Bramley-Moore Dock project"

House of Lords £72,000 + expenses .p.a?

Norman Tebbit was fond of telling people they should get on their bicycle, I'm sure he has one you can borrow, so start pedaling back down the M6 you fucking sponging tory dinosaur.

Jay Wood
[BRZ]

9 Posted 12/03/2019 at 14:01:35
Rob @ 8.

I suggest you read up on 'yer 'istory' before using tired old cliches about this particular Tory Lord.

Those of us who lived through those years in Liverpool – of the secretive 'managed decline' of the city – know all too well how there was a deliberate Tory policy to kill the spirit and squash the hopes of its inhabitants.

Heseltine did not toe the party line. He took his appointed role to the city very, very seriously and did much to arrest its decline.

There is a reason why a Labour-controlled city council granted Heseltine the freedom of the city a few years ago.

Dave Lynch
10 Posted 12/03/2019 at 14:42:16
Heseltine fought tooth and nail to help this city climb out of its decline.

He stood by us when the Thatcher mafia would have seen this city implode.

He has nothing but my respect.

Jay Harris
11 Posted 12/03/2019 at 14:57:20
This was a dark but significant period in British politics with the very militant left and the "Thatcherite" far right bound to provoke unrest.

I think its very wrong to call them the "Liverpool" riots as it was centred around Toxteth and mainly aimed at police bias against the black people there.

When I was a student n the early 70s I had a flat on Princes Park road just along from Swainbanks and there was a section of young blacks then that were beginning to get restless about the fact they couldnt feel safe if they went outside of the toxteth boundary expecially around the bullring and that side of the city and were also victimised by the police.

I believe a lot of good came from that explosion of anger especially the appointment of Heseltine and the regeneration of Mersey Docks and Harbour which has been the catalyst for the City's growth ever since.

As far as I'm concerned any backing form this man has to be good.

Dave Abrahams
12 Posted 12/03/2019 at 15:17:10
Please let no one leave Margaret Simey out of the picture concerning The Toxteth Riots, she did more than anyone to help the people of Toxteth, before, during and after these events.

She clashed with Thatcher, Hesletine and particularly the Chief Constable of Liverpool, Sir Kenneth Oxford, who she accused of using police brutality before and during this period.

She said that the people of Toxteth would be pathetic fools if they didn't rise up and protest the way they were treated and, although she didn't agree with the violence, she completely understood it.

Margaret lived into her ninties and, although born in Glasgow, she did more for the people of Liverpool during her lifetime than most MPs or councillors. She wasn't in it for glory or honour, just to help those who elected her, turning down the honour of “Freedom of the City” with scorn for that honour.

God bless you, Margaret, for your work in Liverpool.

Jay Wood
[BRZ]

13 Posted 12/03/2019 at 15:41:12
Margaret Simey!

What a warrior she was, Dave!

One of my favourite ever quotes by anyone was said by Margaret:

"The magic of Liverpool is that it isn't England!"

Still makes me smile, every time I hear it.

Dave Abrahams
14 Posted 12/03/2019 at 16:04:16
Jay (13), too true — and Margaret was really “One of us” even though she wasn't originally from the city and that quote typified the lady, a very eloquent fighter whose spirit inspired many of the residents of Toxteth and other areas of Liverpool — especially the black people.
Rob Marsh
15 Posted 12/03/2019 at 18:55:39
Jay Wood #9

Let's have a look at what you've said; you've drawn some fairly substantial and false inferences for the most part from what I've said.

Firstly, let's deal with your "Yer istory" (not mine!).

You've used "Yer istory", I'll make (I believe reasonable) the presumption that you believe I have a limited education and if I do any reading at all it's most likely to be the Daily Mirror, The Sun or The Star and that I spend my evenings absorbing urban myths, recycling them with cliches in some public house with those of a similar intellect to my own?

The previous sentence might not wholly match your perception of me, but it's a reasonable approximation based on the context and your laconic and sarcastic use of the offending words, yes?

Speaking of cliches, of which you did!

Is it not an offensive cliche to make the assumption this is how Scousers verbally communicate, educated or not?

For what it's worth, I don't read the above mentioned rags and form my own objective opinions.

Let's move onto the meat of your post.

I've stated above "for the most part", I am a reasonable person and will agree with you about the managed decline of the City, although I have to say the people running the city were of such poor quality (and had been for a long time) — all the Tories really did was stand back and watch it happen.

Okay, Mr Heseltine and the love some feel for him. Before the city's resident Afro Caribbeans attempted to burn down all that was around them, there was significant nay! massive poverty and unemployment, I can't quote the source anymore, having read it a long long time ago, so you can throw this away if you want, but I read that Liverpool was regarded by the EU as the most deprived area in the whole of Europe about the time of the riots.

Things had reached to such a terrible low, where was our government? There was no impetus from them to help in any way, Heseltine was one them, where was he and his like before the riots to do the right thing? It took the global embarrassment of the riots to get them to do anything, you shouldn't praise him too much.

This is a good definition of a politician:

"A person who acts in a manipulative and devious way, typically to gain advancement within an organization."

Labour can reward the Tories as much as they want, but the above definition will still apply to them all.

I am a realist and distrust all politicians equally.

I stand by what I said in my #8 post, he is a dinosaur and he's paid for doing nothing in the House of Lords, Norman Tebbit told us to get on our bikes and leave our homes and families.

Can you now see where my anger comes from (even if you don't agree)?

Rob Halligan
16 Posted 12/03/2019 at 19:41:36
Karl # 2. Classic. 😁😁
Tony Hill
17 Posted 12/03/2019 at 20:07:20
Quite right, Dave @12. She was courageous and was a great force for good. Liverpool still, of course, has its problems but I think that her fearless witnessing to poverty, injustice and racism contributed very much to the broadly happy and optimistic state of the city now.
Don Alexander
18 Posted 12/03/2019 at 21:12:31
Margaret Simey also stood against the appointment of Norman Bettison as Merseyside Chief Constable. Her integrity was in a higher league altogether than anything Heseltine was about.

His chief purpose was, in the future, to quell the chance of major riots that, a day after the first day of Toxteth, immediately sprang up in Manchester, Bristol and London, and other places. They may just have threatened the government's existence.

Never trust a Tory.

Rob Marsh
19 Posted 12/03/2019 at 22:08:52
Don Alexander #18,

They've pretty much quelled the future chances of any serious rioting, the police themselves didn't do anything, they've just simply allowed those who might have fought for their civil rights to self-medicate.

These kids who might have looked at their social and economic position are so spaced out, they're not capable anymore.

Michael Kenrick
20 Posted 13/03/2019 at 18:10:46
Let's bring this back to Bramley-Moore Dock and the juicy new headline from the Echo:

New Everton stadium planning application update as further details on Bramley-Moore revealed.

Oooo, gooody! And the byeline below says invitingly: "Some further insight into hopes for planning application has been provided." If only I could stop there and walk away, confident that real progress is being made, never mind announced... but no, I read on further...

So what are these insights?

"Darran Lawless from Peel Land and Property revealed that he hopes the Blues could submit their application as soon as September." [emphasis added]. Yet this project slips further and further behind with every passing day

But never mind because this is the astounding Kenwright-sized luvvie gem from Denise Barrett-Baxendale: "It will sit beautifully as the Fourth Grace on Liverpool’s waterfront.":

Arrrgh... Nooooooooo! After the small capacity, the inordinate delays and now this bullshit, I am seriously going off this project.

Rob Marsh
21 Posted 13/03/2019 at 20:00:03
I'm more interested what it's like to be in than to look at, we can expect much more sales patter of the coming year.

We're all a bit worn down by this (these) new stadium attempts, apathetic is how I feel now.

I'll believe it when I see it type of attitude, they will get it's way on this one without any real opposition.

52,000 is too small, I'd like to see the clubs thinking on this now that they've declared it's capacity.

This is a very similar design to the one in the leaked document recently on this sight and I have to say I like the look of it:

Stadion im Borussia-Park

Tony Hill
22 Posted 13/03/2019 at 20:05:26
There's one continuing deficit which requires a mention: funding is not in place. Until it is, everything is gossip.
Rob Marsh
23 Posted 13/03/2019 at 20:09:00
It's hard to believe they could come this far with the stadium for it to be a hoax?

However this is EFC!

Tony Hill
24 Posted 13/03/2019 at 20:59:35
The financing has looked wobbly from the start. I'm hoping they're waiting for Usmanov but there's no evidence.
Tony Abrahams
25 Posted 13/03/2019 at 21:04:12
Just like there was no evidence that Kenwright was working for the magician and his cronies, Tony!
Don Alexander
26 Posted 13/03/2019 at 21:57:55
Apart from doing the sums for Usmanov, creaming £billion+ in the process, does anyone know of one single physical project that Moshiri has ever achieved? Just asking.
Tony Marsh
27 Posted 13/03/2019 at 23:32:27

Anyone seen the Liverpool Echo last few nights? Lots of nonesense stories about Bramley-Moore Stadium. Little Ms Dynamite spouting shite about the 4th Grace and intimidating atmospheres. It's fucking laughable as Dynamite Dennis then says we nearly have the finances. Ha ha, only at Everton.

Kenwright has found another pure gold Yes man to do his bidding in the form of the Soup-Kitchen Goddess, Denise. Absolute Joke.

Rob Marsh
28 Posted 14/03/2019 at 00:24:32
In the end we ended up with a billionaire a couple of bob wealthier than Billy Boy and now this new fella just like Billy did, is looking down the back of sofa for any slummy.

Andy Crooks
29 Posted 14/03/2019 at 01:11:15
I don't know enough about Heseltine and Liverpool but I respect the comments of those that do. Here's a remarkably snide comment about Heseltine, though, from the appalling Alan Clarke. It may not be word for word but it is a cracker:

"For God's sake, the man actually bought his own furniture."

John Pierce
30 Posted 14/03/2019 at 01:59:45
This thread brings back some heavy memories. The state of city, safety and especially the way it was run got too much for my old fella with three kids in tow.

We upped sticks and moved in ‘86. It did change our lives. However, I couldn't stay away, as the eldest my love for the place was and is eternal. It's a never-ending question to what would have happened if we'd stayed. Such an angry and sad time.

Anything which makes the city better is okay by me.

Alan J Thompson
31 Posted 14/03/2019 at 05:53:18
Don (#26); That's the mark of a good accountant, it's always well hidden.

JP (#30); very similar.


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