By Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post
AMERICAN billionaire Tom Hicks and his Liverpool FC co-owner George Gillett are to meet for key talks with council officials this week, city leader Warren Bradley said last night.
The duo, in town for tomorrow’s crunch Champions League semi-final return leg against Chelsea, are expected to discuss plans for their new multi-million pound stadium.
One plan is to preserve the turf of the existing ground as the centrepiece for a new plaza, to ensure fans’ dreams and memories can forever be played out on the world- famous Stanley Park turf.
The council can expect to receive a new planning application for both the existing and new sites, which lie virtually side by side in Anfield, this summer. That will delay the opening of the new stadium until at least the start of the 2010 season.
It will also send the cost rocketing from the current £180m to well over £200m.
Although work on the new stadium will still start this summer, the Americans are thought to believe that a new planning application is the best way of getting their plans sorted out from the outset.
As the area needed does not change, work can start simul- taneously with consideration of the amended plans.
By seeking a new planning approval for much enlarged stadium, Liverpool FC will have to carry out a new traffic impact study. The previous assessment was based on a crowd capacity of 61,000, but if the stadium is going to hold between 75,000 and 80,000 people the whole process will have to be redone.
There will be pressure on the club to provide a new Merseyrail train station along the Utting Avenue cutting to offer public transport links to the enlarged ground.
The owners will be meeting a city council group led by Cllr Warren Bradley, council chief executive Colin Hilton and regeneration director John Kelly.
Last night Cllr Bradley said: “My guess is that Liverpol FC will opt to go for a new planning application.
“The owners are not going to increase the footprint (the overall site size) of the new stadium, but the capacity will be significantly increased. We have to respect the fact that many people live in the area and we will make sure that the impact is properly assessed.
“I can see the sense in a fresh application because they have their own ideas of how they see the stadium being used and it is much better to get it right at the very beginning.
“It will mean the opening being put back, but we will have a world-class facility in our city. The plans they are talking about for Anfield Plaza are extraordinary.
“They want to change the original concept and leave the existing pitch as a grassed area. They want people to be able to relive the moments of glory on the existing pitch."
