ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Finch Farm

I live in Woolton but work in Chester so I pass Finch Farm nearly every day.

Today, I actually went up there to have a closer look. The site is huge and very impressive so it got me thinking, why didn't we build our new stadium here?

Finch Farm is in Halewood, which is in Liverpool (just) and has got a great infrastructure: Halewood train station, right on the Knowsley expressway for the north end fans and the Widnes/Runcorn expressway for fans coming from the South.

We had the money to build the complex, so surely it wouldn't have been that much more for a stadium instead. Failing that maybe Tesco would have been interested. The nearest supermarket is the new Morrisons in Speke so surely this is a prime development oppurtunity for a hypermarket either with Tesco or someone else.

For the sake of a new stadium, we could have made do with Bellefield for a few more years and avoided the contentious and emotive issue of moving outside of the city boundaries, which has us fans divided.
Brian Law, Liverpool Posted 12/11/2007 at 15:49:30

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Mick Simo
1 Posted 12/11/2007 at 19:20:14

Halewood is Knowsley mate I live there, go a bit further and its cheshire.

Tom Morris
2 Posted 12/11/2007 at 19:24:30

"Not that much more for a stadium instead" ?!

Come on mate. Really.

Brian Law
3 Posted 12/11/2007 at 19:23:22

It?s a funny one cos Halewood is actually governed by Knowsley council but is actually within the city boundaries.

See link below. Pay particular attention to how Halewood is listed on the left hand side.

http://www.multimap.com/maps/?hloc=GB|halewood#t=l&map=53.36049,-2.83909|12|4&loc=GB:53.36049:-2.83909:14|halewood|Halewood,%20Liverpool,%20Merseyside,%20England,%20L26%201

Brian Law
4 Posted 12/11/2007 at 19:27:14

Tom - have you seen the size of the site?
You wouldn?t need the whole site for a stadium plus parkign etc,.
Also, as I mentioned, in case Im wrong with the financials, Tesco or somene similiar may have been interested.

Tony Marsh
5 Posted 12/11/2007 at 19:29:35

Brian, Finch Farm is just as far away from the city center as Kirkby mate. Its this point that the anti-Kirkby fans like myself have argued all along. We need to be getting closer to town not farther away. The ground being in the city boundary doesn't come in to it ? its the distance from the city center to the ground that is the real issue. Speke and Halewood are to far away from all the ameneties of the city to allow the club to prosper. Just like Kirkby. If Kirkby was within Liverpool city boundary I would still oppose it.

Brian Law
6 Posted 12/11/2007 at 19:36:15

Tony - the city boundaries don?t come in to it?

For your arugment maybe not.
For the most of the anti-Kirky supporters that I know, thats the key issue for them.

I understand your point mate but for me and for my mates staying in the city is more important than being close to the city centre.

Mike Murray
7 Posted 12/11/2007 at 19:30:57

Same for Kirkby though, according to the Multimap left hand side. Doesn’t an L post code deem a place to be Liverpool in this Multimap context? Formby , L37, comes up Liverpool too, and that’s in Sefton - Southport, also in Sefton, comes up as Merseyside - PR8 postcode.

Paul Okell
8 Posted 12/11/2007 at 19:55:56

I live in Halewood and it is in Knowsley, cheaper rates, your bins always collected, pot holes in the road always filled in, roadsweepers keeping the place tidier.
However for the purposes of the KEIOC supporters it is not in Liverpool city boundaries which its next door neighbour Speke is.
We also dont want a big Tesco either Brian there is already one in Woolton a couple of miles away. All the land is greenbelt also.
Training grounds can be on the moon for all I care but stadium should be within the city the team represents, I think it should of been in Gillmoss on the East Lancs myself as there is plenty of brown belt land there it is in Liverpool and very close to Goodison.

James Elworthy
9 Posted 12/11/2007 at 20:14:04

Planning permission for houses have been constantly rejected on the green belt around Tarbock and Halewood by the Knowsley council
Everton got permission for Finch Farm as the buildings are low level and basically the green fields remain, albeit landscaped and now football fields.
It is a very impressive site, but supermarkets usually get built around housing developments and there isnt any around the training ground it is in a country lane.

Mark Pendleton
10 Posted 12/11/2007 at 20:52:00

I think they said that Finch Farm cost £14m. A stadium would be about 10 times that at the very least!!

John Murphy
11 Posted 12/11/2007 at 21:01:12

Speaking of Finch Farm, has anybody seen any pictures of it? If you have any web links, I would appreciate if you could put them up.

Mick Mac
12 Posted 12/11/2007 at 22:06:01

Funny that, I was searching google images and nothing. Anyway finch lane is not in Liverppol boundry, it is nearer cheshire boundary than Liverpool, Hale is two minutes away and isint that in Cheshire

Rob Jones
13 Posted 13/11/2007 at 00:31:04

Oh please god, not the KEIOC debate! Tell you what, why don?t we move to a carpark and put some seats and goalposts, because it would still be a good stadium because its IOC. Look at where Manchesters biggest team is geographically and you?ll notice that it doesn?t matter.

James Elworthy
14 Posted 13/11/2007 at 08:45:22

If you drove at 60mph from Finch Lane in the Runcorn direction you would be in Cheshire in 2 minutes, as the boundary is just past the Knowsley Expressway.

The Jaguar (old Ford) factory is also 2 minutes away.

Lee Spargo
15 Posted 13/11/2007 at 13:01:38

Halewood is definately NOT in the city boundary. But ask them, and they’ll say they’re scousers.

Maybe KEIOC should contact the RSPCA and tell them to take down their sign. It says ’Liverpool Branch’.

Tom Hughes
16 Posted 13/11/2007 at 21:14:05

Rob Jones said: "Look at where Manchesters biggest team is geographically and you?ll notice that it doesn?t matter. "

Don’t need to look at the geography of greater Manchester to know where old Trafford is, I’ve walked it from the city-centre many times, and walked back which also used to be quite exciting. Try doing that from Kirkby. Fact is, Old trafford is much closer to Manchester city centre than Kirkby is to ours, making the manchester comparison rather pointless. I worked in Kirkby for 6 years up to quite recently, it’s a nightmare to get to by public transport for most scousers, very few districts in Liverpool have a direct service to it, and there are none from the Wirral (where a third of our season ticket holders are based), the public transport capacity is one tenth that of Walton, and only a few percent that of Liverpool city centre. There are only a few lanes that pierce the M57 to and from the Kirkby site, meaning that bottlenecks are inevitable going to and returning from the match. These occur most rush hours for just a few hundred industrial estate workers, what chance the bulk of 50,000 blues? As was mentioned earlier in the thread, it has very little to do with boundaries in practical terms, but basic logistics. Speke is inside the boundary and would be no better, as anyone who goes to the retail park there would know is blindingly obvious. It is gridlock with just a few thousand shoppers on a Saturday. Any new site would need mass public transit provision and regular bus and train routes from all parts of Merseyside and nationally. Only the city centre can provide this, and/or sites close to it.