Latest News
Liverpool City Council leader, Joe Anderson, potential Labour candidate for City Mayor of Liverpool, a position which will attract millions of pounds of Government funding, explains to the Guardian why he’s tackling the delivery of The Football Quarter head on.
Regeneration in practice: Liverpool to create football quarter
by Joe Anderson
The Council leader explains his goals for the supporter-led sports regeneration scheme, as he tackles the challenges head-on.
The idea of a football quarter – using the home of a revered sports club to spearhead regeneration in the area around its stadium – is not new. What is unique about our proposals for Liverpool's own quarter is that they are designed to regenerate an area that boasts not one international stadium, but two. It has the potential to spark more local change than ever before.
The credit for this plan must go to the fans themselves, whose determination and drive has brought the project this far. Under the collective All Together Now, supporters groups from each side of that famous Liverpudlian footballing divide have put aside their rivalries to push for progress that can't wait – both in terms of the futures of their clubs, and what those clubs can do for the community in which they are based.
On Saturday members of KEIOC were saddened at the news that Spirit of Shankly Vice President Paul Rice had died peacefully at the Marie Curie Hospice in Woolton.
In his professional life Paul was a well known figure in the city’s business district where he was Chief Executive of Liverpool's Commercial District Partnership.
Members of KEIOC had often visited Paul during his long battle with illness which he faced with typical bravery and courage. KEIOC Secretary Colin Fitzpatrick and Chair Dave Kelly had visited Paul recently and reported that although obviously extremely ill he enthusiastically entered into the inevitable banter between Evertonian and Liverpudlian friends.
A statement on the Spirit of Shankly website said, “It is with deep regret and sadness that the Spirit of Shankly have to announce that one of the founders and Vice President of the union, Paul Rice, passed away peacefully in his sleep at the Marie Curie hospice at 11am this morning. Paul was an inspiration to all who met him and was a dedicated and passionate member of the organisation, always giving leadership and advice. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this very sad time."
KEIOC wish to extend their deepest condolences to Paul’s family, friends and colleagues..
Founding member of KEIOC, AJ Clarke, was killed in November 2007 by a single blow delivered by the then 21 year old Malik Al-Brumy. The blow caused massive brain injuries to which AJ, 45, later succumbed.
Despite an extensive appeal by police, including a feature on Crimewatch in 2009, Mr Al-Brumy and his friend Ben Thompson, who was present during the incident, remained quiet until a tip-off from a member of the public led to his arrest.
Sentencing Al-Brumby Judge Clement Goldstone QC explained, ““You left AJ Clarke lying where he was, with no concern for his wellbeing. You told the jury if you had known he had struck his head you would have gone to his assistance. You knew yet you did not. You have shown no remorse”
The thoughts of all members of KEIOC and no doubt all Evertonians are with Janet and AJ’s family and close friends.
On Wednesday December 28th 2011 Everton and Liverpool fans will launch their prospectus for The Football Quarter, a conceptual development which has the city’s two famous football clubs at its heart.
The prospectus will be launched in the Museum of Liverpool, a building that celebrates the history of the city of Liverpool, in an area that has undergone massive recent regeneration. The prospectus outlines our vision for the area surrounding both Everton FC and Liverpool FC.
In a city where your football club is seen as an intrinsic part of city life, woven into the very fabric of local society, two fan groups from across the divide, Keeping Everton in Our City [KEIOC] and The Spirit of Shankly [SoS], have unprecedentedly joined forces under the banner of “All Together Now” to develop a deliverable solution to their clubs long quest to solve their respective stadium problems.
Based around individual stadia, The Football Quarter is designed to confirm the city’s global sporting image as a destination and encourage the redevelopment of the immediate area in line with The North Liverpool Strategic Regeneration Framework [SRF]. The Football Quarter is designed to attract educational, community, recreational, leisure and retail facilities to an area which has modern stadia at Anfield and Goodison as its hub all serviced by a sustainable transport infrastructure.
Today marks the fourth anniversary of the untimely death of our friend and colleague AJ. Everyone at KEIOC will always recall his enthusiasm and life, his family and Everton Football Club. AJ, a well known and popular figure amongst Evertonians, supported his club wherever they played and was always the first to offer his services for any good cause or to any Evertonian down on their luck.
Sadly AJ was the victim of a senseless attack in the city centre in the early hours of November 25th 2007, an attack which left this decent, well loved, hardworking family man in a coma to which he later succumbed.
The perpetrator of this attack, Malik Al-Brumy, 24, of Fairfield, went on trial at Liverpool Crown Court in October of this year after denying the 2007 manslaughter of AJ. Mr Al-Brumy believed that he was about to be attacked by AJ and that he acted in self- defence. The prosecuting barrister suggested that CCTV evidence did not support the defendant’s claim but the jury were unable to reach a decision which means there will be a re-trial in the early part of 2012.
AJ’s many friends and fellow Evertonians are obviously sympathetic towards AJ’s family and close friends who will now have to suffer the additional stress of the re-trial but today we’re sure that everyone will take a few minutes to fondly remember a true gentleman and a great Evertonian who will always be sadly missed.
Throughout 2011 there’s been a whiff of anxiety emanating from Goodison Park; an unpleasant aroma that in recent weeks has turned into the stench of sheer desperation as the last vestiges of the integrity of Everton’s hierarchy disappears faster than a line of Bob Marley at a showbiz party.
The year started off badly for the board; with no incoming players in the January window and Steven Pienaar sold to Spurs, there followed an alarming set of financial results that included the startling admission that the £9m from the sale of Bellefield went to appease the banks, that staff costs had increased to an almost uncomfortable 70% of turnover and another £7m of debt had been added.
Whilst David Moyes dug deep to secure an seventh place finish, the off field turmoil continued in the second quarter. Following a BBC report on the latest and all too predictable evaporation of mysterious and elusive buyers, the Echo suddenly grew a pair and published a week long exposé into Everton’s finances which earned them the all too inevitable journalistic ban. The demise of the much vaunted Park End development produced four different explanations from club officials and the CEO valiantly told all and sundry of this well run club that spent 85p in the pound on Finch Farm and had produced robust financial results along with the usual claim that the club would be providing “some” money for the manager in the summer.
The summer came and went and saw no additions but two loan signings to the smallest squad in the Premier League; there were several departures in the form of Vaughan, Beckford, Yakubu and Arteta. The facade of the well run club was kept up until the publication of the report from three Evertonians who had met with Bill Kenwright and learnt the appalling truth about the banks being on the verge of closing the business down, of the willingness to sell to somebody who lived in a one bedroom flat, of a deluded chairman who had lost all sense of reality and couldn’t see the damage he was doing to the club he purports to love. The quarter ended with a march by disenchanted fans on Goodison Park, the protestors were disillusioned by the board, disillusioned by the lies, the deceit and the contempt shown to the fans by Everton’s hierarchy.
Everton’s hierarchy has always had problems with numbers; there was the £30m ringfenced for the Kings Dock stadium that turned out to be a figment of somebody’s theatrical imagination, the £50m from Tesco that turned out to be little more than a stage illusion and of course there’s the managers transfer budget which has been the square root of nothing for the past couple of years.
Yesterday, Everton’s Fan Liaison Officer, Graeme Sharp, whose job it is to improve communications and relations with the fans told the media that the Blue Union protest was attended by one man and his dog. Evertonians will of course be eternally grateful to Graeme for his unerring ability to see the back of net; these days it appears he can’t see past the end of his nose as the above photograph shows it was very well attended.
The Blue Union’s second march was a great success as it attracted the massive media attention that their campaign needs and allows very frustrated Evertonians the opportunity to vent their anger at the current board’s horrendous tenure of our great club and refusal to consider bringing some much needed professionalism into what has been revealed as a club being run like a kindergarten.
At the conclusion of the march one very well known Evertonian, and former shareholder, stated that after over forty years of watching Everton home and away, as far away as Thailand, he wouldn’t be setting foot in the ground until the present board had left; he joined the 6,000 stay away fans that are protesting with their feet and contributing to a possible £3m reduction in matchday turnover for the year.
[Lead Photo Courtesy of Sam McParland]
Prior to Everton’s next home game there will be the second in a series of planned demonstrations by Evertonians who propose not only a change in ownership but a mechanism for positive change that will ensure that the best interests of the club will be the overriding consideration when evaluating prospective owners who can best demonstrate a solution to the stagnation that has enveloped Everton like a shroud in recent years.
Saturday’s game against Wolves could provide a pivotal indication to Everton’s fortunes this year. Entering the second quarter of the season, Everton, following a run of games in which they’ve played most of the premier league’s top clubs, find themselves one point above the relegation zone.
Wolves, one point ahead, are representative of a group of teams Everton must take three points from in the coming months; in fact anything less than an emphatic victory on Saturday will leave the long suffering match going Evertonians despondent.
Evertonians will also be mindful of the recently confirmed speculation over numerous parties who have expressed an interest in the ownership of the club. Questions put to KEIOC by concerned Evertonians appear to centre on three areas....
- How much is the club up for sale for?
- Is the club really up for sale or are they looking for an investor?
- Who actually owns what is being sold?
If we can begin with the apparently perplexing question of how much money is being asked for the club. Putting a valuation on any business can be complicated process; it’s not an exact science, it’s a mixture of objectivity and subjectivity
Supporters of Everton, indeed even the small shareholders of Everton, are merely interested bystanders in this process; they have little access to current financial information so the best that can be achieved is a good old fashioned educated guess.
The last published accounts cover a period up to May 31st 2010, you can see the problem, they’re eighteen months out of date; 2012 is almost upon us and even the next set of accounts, which are due to be published soon, are now six months out of date. Even with the information in the accounts it’s difficult to provide an accurate evaluation of the value of the business.
Over the next three years Liverpool City Council will deliver an estimated £130m for new housing developments.
It will involve making council-owned brownfield sites, throughout the city, available for housing at no cost, although registered providers would have to enter into some form of clawback agreement in the case of sites which are not ultimately developed.
Councillor Joe Anderson, City Council Leader, said: “This is the biggest investment of this type we have seen for decades. Along with our investment in eight new schools and through the council’s Asset Backed Vehicle, which allows us to use our land and buildings to attract long-term investment from the private sector and so stimulate regeneration, we are looking at around half a billion pounds of investment in the city creating growth and jobs.”
Nick Kavanagh, council’s director for regeneration and employment, said: “This is a prime example of the council working in partnership with the private sector and social housing landlords to improve the quality of housing in the city while developing sustainable regeneration in our communities.”
It is proposed that the plan will be financed through borrowing and by using capital receipts. The council has also bid for £10m of funds through the Housing Market Renewal Transition Fund and could potentially receive revenue from the New Homes Bonus.
Former Tesco CEO and advisor to Everton, Sir Terry Leahy, and the RT Hon the Lord Heseltine, have co-authored a report which considers the opportunities for growth in the City Region over the next two decades.
The report highlights building on the existing strengths of the area with specific reference,amongst many other things, to Everton and Liverpool Football Clubs, other sporting events, tourism and the convention & conference market.
The report suggests that Liverpool is not the source of despair it once was: since 2000, Liverpool's economy has grown faster than that of the UK and is ideally placed to build on its recent successful regeneration initiatives.
Evertonians will know that KEIOC and our counterparts across the park, The Spirit of Shankly, have jointly developed and promoted the concept of The Football Quarter which is a designated area in and around Stanley Park which comprises two football stadia and 40 acres of land dedicated to educational, recreational, leisure and community facilities designed not only to promote business and regeneration but also to aid in the transformation of Anfield, Walton, the City and the immediate region.
UK and international evidence suggests that regeneration waves are initiated and executed by charismatic, talented and committed local leaders. Regeneration waves require stimulus, and these include high profile and often significant events and investments that change the perception of a place. They will typically come from the public sector but will be collaborators who can empower and harness other leaders, for example in the business community, voluntary sector, faith groups etc.
Critically, good quality local leadership will work co-operatively but assertively with central Government, representing an area in a constructive, hard-headed and consistent manner. There is evidence that private sector investors in particular are influenced by consistent civic leadership, and, given choice, prefer to invest in places with a shared vision rather than in places with a more contested or changeable attitude to growth.
Government can also kick-start new regeneration waves with significant locational decisions it influences, funds or endorses, for example with the BBC move to Manchester/Salford, a £900m national investment that had an immediate transformative impact not just on Salford but on property values and investor confidence across Greater Manchester. Another vital asset in creating and sustaining the next regeneration wave will be a good supply of commercial premises.