Everton Football Club and Tesco Stores Limited have today submitted a planning application to Knowsley Borough Council for a new 50,000-seat stadium and a massive regeneration of Kirkby.
The stadium development is the focal point of the application for the £400m 'Destination Kirkby' project.
The hybrid planning application includes details for a new 24-hour Tesco Extra store, around 50 additional high street retail units and opportunities for a new leisure development.
Everton CEO Keith Wyness said: “This represents the next, key stage in what has been a complex and demanding process. We continue to work closely with our partners, Tesco and Knowsley Borough Council, and we remain very optimistic about what is hugely-ambitious and significant project."
The application also details infrastructure and public realm improvements to the Town Centre with around £10m earmarked for road improvements and further funding for boundary treatments designed to lessen the impact of the development on surrounding neighbourhoods.
It also includes an outline application for new commercial and new leisure developments in the existing town centre that could include a hotel, new bars, restaurant and family leisure facilities.
Tesco Public Affairs Manager, Tony Fletcher said: ”We have been working on the Destination Kirkby planning application for the past ten months and we believe that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a development of truly international significance in the heart of Kirkby.
“We have consulted widely on our suggestions and have received valuable feedback not least from the people of Kirkby who have attended exhibitions and meetings with us.
“We will now enter an extended period of consultation with the council and will continue to seek feedback from residents on our application.
“We hope that the planning committee will consider the application in the late Spring of 2008 and depending the outcome of that and subsequent feedback from the Government Office North West, we hope to be in a position to start construction work in 2008.”
