John Coyne Green Party councilor for St Michaels ward will table a motion to Liverpool City Council’s Regeneration Select Committee Meeting on Thursday 12th suggesting an alternative site if Everton decides to leave Goodison Park.
The site he will propose is at Stonebridge Cross in Croxteth ward. The Greens are responding to current fears that Walton Hall Park could be sacrificed in favour of a new stadium for The Blues.
Residents’ worries have been developing since a twenty thousand pound feasibility study was published last November. The study commissioned by Everton Football Club, Liverpool Mutual Homes and Liverpool City Council and produced by a company called Volterra says that Walton Hall Park is “underused”. This conclusion appears to be reached by counting the number of people who attend special events in the park, and comparing this figure with the number of people who attend special events in other parks in Liverpool. It shows a League Table of Parks in which Sefton Park is at the top and Princess Park is at the bottom based on events statistics. The report doesn’t show how many regular users visit the parks in search of the peace and tranquility rather than in search of special events.
Local people campaigning to save their park, which was once the grounds of Walton Hall, have discovered it has been excluded from City Council’s Green Spaces Review. They fear it has been re-designated as regeneration land, despite having been a public park since the 1930s.
Liverpool Green Party doesn’t agree with building on public parks and so suggests another site for any Blues’ new stadium. The site Cllr Coyne proposes in Stonebridge Cross has been discussed as a possible site for a giant Amazon warehouse, but currently contains a 50 acres site of vacant land.
Jean Hill who is originally from the area, joins local campaigners to voice concern. She said:
“Surely a Premier League Football Club doesn’t need the public to provide land for its 50,000 seater stadium, any more than a housing provider the size of Liverpool Mutual Homes needs this beautiful park to deliver new homes”