Tesco - Everton inquiry
Tesco - Everton: Destination Kirkby
In November 2007, Roger Tym & Partners was commissioned by Knowsley Council to advise on the retail and planning policy aspects of the Destination Kirkby project, one of the most significant potential investments in Merseyside. We were subsequently appointed, in March 2008, to undertake an appraisal of the anticipated socio-economic and regeneration impacts of the project.
The mixed-use scheme, which is put forward by Tesco Stores Limited and Everton Football Club, comprises a new state-of-the-art 50,000 seat stadium for Everton, together with 50,000 sq.m of retail development, new leisure uses, new food and drink outlets, an hotel, new office and civic uses, residential units, bus and coach parks and improvements to the train station and to the public realm.
The Council resolved to be minded to approve the scheme in June 2008 on the grounds that it would:
- help to transform the entirely unacceptable socio-economic conditions prevailing in Kirkby and in the northern part of Knowsley Borough, which is one of the most deprived areas in the UK
- represent the type of radical intervention in the market that is necessary to transform the profile of a dysfunctional town centre, that lost its anchor foodstore in 1979
- safeguard and enhance the long term future of Everton Football Club and the role that it plays in the Merseyside community.
