ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Asda

I've just read the Asda proposal and at face value it does seem far more attractive to a local council than the proposal ourselves and Tesco are putting forward.

What seems like a better option for regenerating an area: a Tesco-anchored shopping centre with a football stadium, and all the supposed crowd based trouble that comes with it, or an Asda-based shopping centre with a public library and health centre attached?

Think about it. Local councils have to account for their budgets and have to be seen to be as prudent as possible with their money. If a private company is prepared to build you public amenities and services like a library and a health centre, it's a deal that is worth considering.

By contrast a private company offering you the potential headache of hordes of football fans once, if not twice a week converging on your town doesn't seem like a decent proposal at all. What is in it for the council? Crowd congestion on the public transport system, traffic congestion on your roads, concerns over public order, a strain on your local police force. The pubs will make a killing but what's in it for anyone else?

If I were a local council a football team is a luxury item to have, not a necessity. And public libraries and health centres are of far more value to people living in a deprived or run down area. Local councils are elected by locals and I think that this could have a huge bearing on the council's decision.
Kieran Fitzgerald, Dublin Posted 06/12/2007 at 21:51:11

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David Barks
1 Posted 07/12/2007 at 00:07:25

So we’re back to the whole thing that the people going to watch the match will wreck the town. So why don’t Liverpool kick both clubs out. That other side has gotten England banned from European competition, it’s a wonder the Prime Minister doesn’t declare football to be illegal if it’s such a detriment to society. Ridiculous post.

Jonty Morgan
2 Posted 07/12/2007 at 02:56:32

Not a ridiculous post at all, what he is conveying is the fears of local residents, alot of who are against this project for that very idea. While i agree in respect that these are irrational fears to the majority of those that live by the clubs in Liverpool, you have got to appreciate that many of the local residents do not want their roads and carpark blocked up by Footy fans, and would prefer to do their shopping like every other ratail park in peace to sample the local Burtons and M&S foodstore

Ray Roche
3 Posted 07/12/2007 at 06:59:26

I agree,Jonty. I lived in Arkles Lane for 12months after I got married in 1972,around the time the Council brought in residents parking restrictions. It was a nightmare when the RS played at home. Until something has a direct affect on your OWN life and wellbeing you can?t see the detrimental side of things.If you had to put up with Norwegians pissing in your garden every other week you?d soon get..er..pissed off with it.

Matt Traynor
4 Posted 07/12/2007 at 08:57:30

David,
I’d disagree with your views. Anfield and Goodison have been where they are for a bloody long time.

People either chose to move there, in all knowledge of any inconveniences that matchdays can bring, or they were born there / inherited the properties.

It most definitely is different from having a new stadium planted in your midst - something you wouldn’t have been aware of when purchasing the property.

Bob Fletcher
5 Posted 07/12/2007 at 09:19:51

Kieran, there is already a library and health centre in Kirkby Town Centre and there would be with the new Tesco development. Asda used to have one of their biggest stores in Kirkby but pulled out in the 70’s without notice to move to Switch Island. As they have already got big stores at Switch Island and Huyton, I think it is unlikely that they would return to Kirkby, or be allowed to do so.

Dan Mckie
6 Posted 07/12/2007 at 10:23:57

Or the council could look at it as guarenteed thousands of people coming through the town spending cash every other week from all over the country if the stadium is built! As for the police, think prem clubs have to pay a few hundred per officer so I very much doubt they will be crying about that either!

James Elworthy
7 Posted 07/12/2007 at 10:40:35

Knowsley Council would describe Everton’s new stadium as their Jewel in the Crown for their borough. They will pull out all the stops to ensure the stadium is built in Kirkby, it will give serious regeneration to the place more so than an Asda which you can find all over Liverpool. If anything superstores ruin local businesses. You only have to look at any high street in a Liverpool district where are all the butchers, greengrocers, sweet shops and fishmongers, long gone, because of the new Tesco, Asda, Morrisons or Sainsburys..
Whether your in favour of moving to Kirkby or not the Knowsley Council will be doing all it can to ensure it comes off for their personal prestige and honour to have a club like Everton situated in their borough.

Andy Callan
8 Posted 07/12/2007 at 12:00:04

Not all the people in the local area don?t want the stadium; its just people with no foresight or vision for Knowsley and / or Everton. Listen lads, the top and bottom of it is that either we move to Knowlsy or we die a death and become another Sheff Wed. Football is on its way to a European league and we need to be at the forefront of stadium technology and playing regularly in Europe in order to move with the times.

The people have voted and we voted to move. Get used to the idea.

Lee Spargo
9 Posted 07/12/2007 at 12:52:15

You forget to mention the huge benefits that a football stadium would bring to the immediate local economy.

If the proposal involving Asda was more attractive to the local council then they would back that over the EFC/Tesco scheme. They haven’t have they?

In any case, the fact that an alternative proposal has been made for Kirkby that doesn’t involve EFC surely means that the club should at least make contingency plance in case it all falls through. I hope it doesn’t fall through though, becuase if it does, suspect all will go quiet over the Loop.

Brian Temple
10 Posted 07/12/2007 at 13:46:23

ASDA won’t get permission to build there, this is just more media hype.
ASDA have a store a couple of miles down the M57 on Switch Island. There’s a Somerfield in Maghull and a Sainsbury’s on Rice Lane. A Tesco in Kirkby is needed for competition purposes (although there is a Tesco’s in Prescott but no-one goes there).
If you use Bolton’s Reebok as the comparison (which is what the Knowlsey proposal is essentially based on) then there is additional infrastructure with office space being created to cater the service industry (The Parklands has a number of national companies relocate there from inner town/city offices - E-on, AXA, RBS). This is somehting that Kirkby and Knowsley needs as the manufacturing industry that has been there for years has gradually faded.

Brian Waring
11 Posted 07/12/2007 at 16:17:31

Andy, if we don’t move to Kirkby,how will we become another Sheff Wed?

Gavin Ramejkis
12 Posted 07/12/2007 at 17:37:49

Andy two major flaws in your post "forefront of stadium technology" and "playing regularly in Europe" the first couldn’t be further from the truth about the Kirkby design and the second is dependent on the football not the stadia.

Brian if the Prescott Tesco is empty then what makes another Tesco in a sparsely populated overflow town more attractive? I wouldn’t drive that far to shop when I have other supermarkets closer to home. I have worked in several places in the UK where there are Tesco Expresses and Tesco Superstores that would seem to me to be a case of flatten your opposition overkill.

Tony Waring
13 Posted 07/12/2007 at 17:57:21

Let’s all hope that ASDA wins the day!