It has been announced that Kirkby is to get a new sports facility. The plan
was publicly announced on Radio Merseyside today (26 Aug) by Graham Morgan, the deputy
leader of Knowsley Council one of Jim Keight's buddies who is a Councillor up in Huyton.
Readers of Kirkby Times will have known that this deal was done and dusted in May 2003;
the local media follow this up 3 months after we told you Kirkby Sports Centre and the Swimming
Pool were sold. The plan is to demolish both Kirkby Sports Centre in Westvale and Kirkby
Swimming Pool near the Town Centre and to rebuild a Sports facility which includes both
a swimming pool and the sports facilities which were to be found in Kirkby Sports Centre
which is a pretty big stadium. Is this possible given the area occupied by the swimming
pool, which is the proposed site, is not that big an area,
perhaps twice as small as the Kirkby Sports Centre land?
It seems a great plan according to Knowsley Council.
The Plan…
Building a decent Sports Centre or repairing the one we have is just a project long
over due and Graham Morgan told BBC Radio Merseyside today that the new stadium
would include a 6 lane swimming pool
plus a 6 lane athletics track and would include floodlit pitches which could be used for
basketball and football. Facilities for boxing and a 'Shapers Gym' would also be built.
Morgan also spoke of 'partnerships with local sports clubs' but we will come to how these
partnerships have so far worked shortly. Morgan almost sounded enthusiastic, but the
picture he painted was perhaps not as rosy as it he was making it out to be. Are we
really going to replace all the facilities we are demolishing?
The real plan!
Kirkby Sports Centre in Westvale,Kirkby, occupies a fair sized portion of land which contractors have long
been eying up. The land itself, if you look at it, is not just the stadium, it includes the
Ju Jitsu building plus the 5 a side pitches and the fair sized car park. There is also a
fair tract of land just by the stadium which could see 50 homes built. Knowsley Council
stand to earn a fair sum letting the land go. As usual the likes of Wimpey or someone will
step in. Knowsley Housing Trust have chosen to NOT build ANY new houses despite the obvious
commercial sense in doing so plus its own self survival (no new houses built = redundancies)
Remember that Kirkby Stadium contains enough actual field in the middle of the stadium to
stage a full sized game of football. Knowsley Council are saying "lets sell off this big
slice of land and cram everything into an already congested Town Centre" - is this
clever given the volume of increased traffic we will see in the coming years?
Kirkby Times could have saved Kirkby 10 Million Pounds!
As we mentioned earlier - Morgan spoke of 'partnerships with local clubs' we all
know Knowsley council think the sun shines out of Liverpool FC's backsides - but let
us stop for a minute to consider the land deal which bought Liverpool FC here. This
has been mentioned before but it's worth bringing up again as it important. And
relevant to this new 'deal' being bought about.
The sell off of Windy Arbour
The sell off of Windy Arbour in 1998 (a fairly big field which was used by
locals since Kirkby was built) was put together in secret, and the details were
leaked to the Liverpool Echo. All the locals nearby signed a petition which was
against Liverpool FC gaining exclusive private ownership of the common land but
the scheme was bulldozed through despite protests and a petition which was ignored
by Knowsley Council. This resulted in the land NOT being put out to tender!, the
Community the net losers and the other members of the secret deal ( Keight & O Hare)
not declaring an interest at all the different stages, as they should have done being
season ticket holders at Liverpool FC. We all remember the action taken against Liverpool
City Councillors by the District Auditor over similar behaviour when the club were seeking
planning permission for Anfield. Why are the Knowsley gang immune from any sanctions?
* (This paragraph was originally included in another contribution to the website.)
Land bought for 1 million now worth 11 million!
The sale of the land went through and it was revealed Liverpool FC paid One Million
pounds for the land. They immediately found that a portion of the land was not actually
needed by them- they sold this land for a reputed 4 Million pounds! The land sold off
by Knowsley Council is worth an estimated 11 Million pound or more compared to the
rapidly rising price of land here. The site would have been ideal for this new Sports
Stadium, although given the Liverpool Academy is situated by Sonae it may not be the
greatest place to run around or try to be healthy! Either way, we've been mugged blind
in this one.
Doubtless the sell off of Kirkby Sports Centre will leave us worse off financially
and we'll have less sports facilities AND lose a few more precious bits of green
field into the bargain. Don't forget - Kirkby is actually rising in its population
and number of households. We will need as many facilities as possible and it's
difficult to see the new sports facility replacing both Kirkby Sports Centre and Kirkby
swimming pool. Knowsley Council will profit - the Contractors will make a million
as soon the ink on their contracts are dry - that means WE lose out. Over the years
that Kirkby has seen these deals we have seen nothing but losses for the actual
community. Whilst Kirkby Times welcomes Council owned and run facilities being built -
we should all keep a very very careful eye on just what is happening here.
Questions to ask
Will the sale of the land where Kirkby Sports Centre is situated be enough
to cover the cost of the new Sports Stadium? - What about the sale of other
land -? - where is that money going to (r15% pay rises for management maybe?)
Will the new pool include a separate babies pool and a diving pool?
Kirkby Swimming Pool as it stands also has steam baths and other facilities.
It is at least a 6 lane swimming pool, maybe more. It's possible the new pool
will be smaller. Less is more for Knowsley Council - when were getting less that is!
Will the new 'stadium' have, like Kirkby Sports Centre - facilities for
the disabled and is it able to host a big sized competition for the disabled?
Will it have Squash, badminton, a full sized athletics track plus the only
cycling track in the Knowsley area as well as boxing, wrestling, marital arts
and gymnastics? Will the new stadium be able to host the wide variety of competitive
sporting events as the old Stadium has done over the years? At one time, the Stadium
was of a very high standard and was big enough to accommodate several thousand spectators.
Will the new one be able to accommodate a few thousand spectators?
Kirkby Sports Centre has/had a full sized football pitch which was well maintained.
The old Kirkby's boy's
schools cup final used to held there and even recently we have seen Kirkby Stadium being used
for Dog breeders Competitions. Will this new stadium be big enough to host an Asian
festival which used to be held in the old one?
Where would all the cars park for this new stadium which would be
close to an already dangerous road? If most Sports stadiums are anything to
judge by, most of those using the facilities will drive there. We already have
a massive parking problem in that area - Kirkby Times has showed how Knowsley
Council are happy to let cars park illegally when it suits them. Cars using the
town centre are over spilling onto wasteland. True that the Tram would be convenient
for most - but a lot of the surrounding areas will not be on the route so people will
presumably still use cars.
Admission prices and concessions - would we still have a guarantee the prices would
not rise and that concession are made for OAP's/kids etc?
Will the land which is now occupied by the Stadium be put out to tender,
or will it be offered and sold in secret for a ridiculous knock down price like
Windy Arbour was?
More soon!
