Stadium planning process delayed into next year

Maybe they are waiting to see if Joe Anderson is found guilty or not? But either way, we are talking about Billionaires, and not little millionaires!

Perfectly legitimate reasons why the stadium planning application has been delayed to the New Year.

Lucky if it comes in before the summer the way he's talking...

There was always going to be delays. I work in building and there is a delay on an outside tap nevermind the actual building.

Paperwork leads to more delays – just enjoy the football analysis and let the businessmen slowly build the stadium.

My own local council has used the pandemic as an excuse for everything.

The council should have treated this as a priorty, it being the city's and probably regions biggest building project at this time. At a value of £500m I can't accept the "volume of paperwork" is stopping this. What's the problem, planning permission for Mr Smith's garage extension up the road has greater priority and draws resources away?

Jay Wood @ 1, I hope you're right, but given the political situation at the moment and the will to get things moving in all sectors. There might be more to this than meets the eye?

And surely you have to take into consideration that Moshiri (or whoever really owns our club) might just be feeling slighty uneasy about taking on such a debt without fully knowing what the future holds.

The above gleamings aren't even in the realms of conspiracy theories, many wealthy business concerns are closing their wallets at this time, it would be reasonable for Moshiri et al to put the brakes on at this time.

Once again, I hope I'm wrong and this is just "administrative difficulties".

They could have said, ‘ in the next few weeks'

I realise that Covid has had an impact on all aspects of our life in the last 10 months, but everything seemed to be progressing and all updates have suggested that the builders would start work early in the new year. I see the other lot are planning further extensions it will be interested to see how quickly they get approval.

As for the inevitable Covid excuse, how does working from home mean lower productivity? If it was that inefficient a way of operating why weren't staff being told to work from the Council offices?

Those two dodgy veterans Joe the Doe and Mr Vain himself, Dirty Derek have caused a big mess to some of the citys future developments.

Everything will be scrutinised much deeper now. I'm just gutted they are both blues. Pair of absolute rip off merchants.

Who knows at this point if any of this underhand behaviour has bled into any Bramley Moore package?

'Well I never' straight back at you.

Misery will always find a way to be miserable, eh?

My biggest concern apart from will we ever get a stadium is seriously how long can Woodison - particularly the Bullens last.

Agreed, but at the end of the day Justice VS A huge pot of money in a financial crisis?

That investigation won't come anywhere near BM dock, even if there is corruption, central government will see to that, with £500m + other ancillary investments to be gained in the present economic malaise.

If Moshiri want's this it will go ahead and swiftly! If he doesn't then we will be experiencing GP's cosiness and unique atmosphere for many a season to come.

So just to keep the balance - on a day where we have beaten a second top 6 side and kept a clean sheet in both games after 10 games where we never even kept one and back into the top 5 - we now have negative news about the stadium.

I love this club and its ability to keep our feet on the ground.

“Everton remain confident that should approval be granted early in 2021, they are still on course to open the new stadium for the first game of the 2024-25 season.”

Wasn't it supposed to be ready for the 2022 Commonwealth Games initially? We are not just a few months down, it's now 2 years late and counting! Still no spades in the ground, all we've got is a dream.

This stadium is never going to happen, typical Everton this. We've seen consultation after consultation and we still don't have planning permission. The architect has been fired! You couldn't make it up!

Any possibility of Everton FC moving to a new stadium in 2022 was wholly reliant upon the City of Liverpool being awarded the 2022 Commonwealth Games, it didn't as Birmingham was chosen. Plus it wouldn't have been the design that we have before us now.

According to a tweet by Alan Myers earlier tonight, the planning department is likely to consider the merits of the Bramley-Moore Dock project in late January 2021, so hopefully only a few weeks to find out whether they approve, disapprove, or send it to the Government for its consideration.

As for Dan Meis, the architect, he was paid for his part in the project and then removed from the process, which I understand is not an unusual event in projects of this size.

I believe that there are some elements of preparatory work on the site that are taking place right now, in order to mitigate any delays should the Stadium be given the go-ahead.

As far as I can tell, and most fair-minded people would agree, the club has done as much as it could have done, but it is not in a position to dictate the diary of the City of Liverpool's planning department.

You just did, Danny.

Goodison Park could be developed into a great modern stadium, certainly much better than Anfield, if only the people at the top could see what's right in front of them and stop looking at £ signs.

'The last 9 months and next 6 months presented Everton with the best ever opportunity to develop Goodison Park.'

How so? Because the stadium has been closed to fans due to the pandemic?

Yeah, the board need a sound thrashing for not anticipating the events of 2020.

Nothing I said was made up. And I am far from the only fan growing concerned at the slow progress made since we announced in January 2017 that we wanted to pursue a new ground at Bramley-Moore Dock. We still don't have planning permission nearly 4 years later!

I hope you are right. And that it will be full steam ahead once planning permission is granted next month. However, the cynic in me suspects there will be a few hitches. The longer these things drag on for, the more the costs go up. And this is Everton we are talking about here. We have been talking about ground moves for 30 years and not handled any of the proposed moves particularly well.

I hope I am wrong, but I doubt we will be playing in Bramley-Moore Dock stadium in time for the 2024-25 season.

Sure about that, Danny?

* 'Wasn't it supposed to be ready for the 2022 Commonwealth Games initially?'

That was one POSSIBILITY on the table. That option was taken off the table when Birmingham won the right to stage the games.

* 'We are not just a few months down, it's now 2 years late and counting!'

What is this claim based on? The exploration of potential sites, the consultancy, the entire process continues to follow a transparent timeline in hundreds of pages of documents, openly shared by the club.

* 'Still no spades in the ground, all we've got is a dream.'

But there have been 'spades in the ground' and samples taken to check such things as the geological stability of the site and for any potential toxicity.

Construction 'spades in the ground' cannot commence without planning permission, made all the more challenging because the site lies within a World Heritage listed site.

* 'This stadium is never going to happen, typical Everton this.'

Speculative opinion, not 'absolute truth' as you wish to claim.

* 'We've seen consultation after consultation and we still don't have planning permission.'

Admirable thoroughness by the club to give the project every chance of being approved.

* 'The architect has been fired!'

No he wasn't. He was hired and paid for his services. His job was done. It's common practice, not 'typical Everton that' at all.

* 'You couldn't make it up!

I repeat, you did just that Danny.

The same with Spurs. Plans for their new stadium were first announced in 2008. Planning permission applied for in 2009 and obviously granted, but a few obstacles had to be overcome before the stadium was finally opened in April 2019. So it took Spurs from start to finish 11 years to get their new stadium open.

Danny @ 41 says we announced our intentions to build at Bramley-Moore Dock in January 2017, and in four years we still don't have planning permission. Don't forget though, that it's almost 12 months to the day since the club submitted their planning application to the council (wasn't the planning application submitted on 23rd December last year?) so, since then, it's been out of the club's hands until the council approve planning permission.

These things can't be done in a couple of years, although I will admit we have had one or two hiccups along the way, notably with the Kings Dock, and thankfully, Destination Kirkby.

You've split hairs with that last post. I could be just as pedantic with all of your claims but I can't be bothered. Let's see if we are playing in this stadium in three and a half years time shall we?

We probably didn't help the process by submitting an amendment to the planning application in September 2020!

Cue the "Ahhh there must be something wrong if they've sent out an email saying everything's alright!" posts.

I only hope quality prevails for a long lasting magnificent stadium and symbol of our great club.