The future of Old Swan’s Rathbone Park has become the subject of a row
“Rathbone Park used to be a really good place to go for activities, it used to be great for the kids”, says Graham Kehoe. Graham, 39, has lived in Old Swan all of his life and he has fond memories of using the small park as a child.
Found at the junction of Edge Lane and Rathbone Road, the park has clearly seen better days. Between its grassy areas, weeds grow out of the tarmac and benches sit vandalised.
For Graham, the park is emblematic of the way his area has changed. He said: “I’ve lived in Old Swan all my life. I’ve seen for years that the area has been massively underfunded for years and years.
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“There were plenty of youth clubs but there’s nothing for the kids now. The community centre shut down, pubs are community hubs for adults and I’ve seen loads of them close down. There’s nothing in the community for the adults to get behind. Independent businesses are falling by the wayside.”
Edge Lane, one of the busiest routes into Liverpool city centre, is probably best known for its retail park. Owned by Derwent Holdings, the Liverpool Shopping Park is the city’s biggest retail park.
For 13 years, Rathbone Park was subject to a legal option from Derwent – meaning it could expand the retail park onto the land if it wished. During this time, Liverpool City Council was not able to work on the park or to spend to improve it. However, Derwent passed on the option – returning the park to full public control. Its future has now become the subject of a row.
On October 10, Old Swan West Councillor William Shortall declared that he had “great news” as he announced that a bid from non-league football club City of Liverpool FC (COL FC) to take over the site and build a ground on it would not be going ahead. Cllr Shortall said he had been “inundated with complaints about turning the only green space in our community into a football stadium with all its associated problems and concerns.”
COL FC formed in 2015 as a fan-owned, community football club. The club, which is a community benefit society and is run by volunteers, plays in Division One West of the Northern Premier League, the eighth level of the English football league system.
Intended to be a representation of the entire city, the club play in purple – a mix of Everton blue and Liverpool red. COL FC wish to be based in the Liverpool city limits but no suitable facility currently exists.
Instead, the club have played home games in Bootle, Ellesmere Port and Widnes as they have searched for a permanent ground over the past decade. In April, COL FC signed a two-year ground share agreement with Halton Council’s DCBL Stadium – the home of rugby league side Widnes Vikings – meaning they will continue to play their games outside of the Liverpool city limits.
There have been moments of promise in the search for a permanent ground. In 2018, the club announced plans to make a former playing fields site in Fazakerley their home, but that has not come to fruition.
In September 2023, encouraged by then-Mayor Joanne Anderson, the club applied for a Community Asset Transfer (CAT) to take over land at Rathbone Park – with the intention of building a 2,000 capacity ground. CATs allow community organisations to take over publicly-owned land or buildings in a way that brings public benefits to communities and applications are scored by council officers, with a certain mark required to proceed.
The club hoped this would allow them revitalise the derelict all-weather football pitch and adjoining community park to provide a “first-class community sporting amenity.” The proposals include an enclosed community football ground with a 3G artificial grass pitch, plus associated storage, parking and access arrangements.
However, the club’s 2023 application fell short of the required score. COL FC intended to apply again, but Liverpool City Council’s cabinet member for growth and economy Nick Small said the local authority “received no information from the Club after over a year”, leading it to make the announcement that the ground plan wasn’t going ahead. The club disputes this.
The decision has led to a row, with the club determined to make the Rathbone Park plan work. They have launched a petition, which the club say has been signed by more than 1,600 people – 286 of whom they say are from the L13 area. Paul Manning, 56, from Huyton, is the chairman of COL FC. He believes the plan would benefit his organisation and the area.
Mr Manning told the ECHO: “We’re not trying to take over the park or build a stadium on all the green area. We want to build a little community stadium on the concrete and we need to take a little bit of the grass behind it for the changing rooms.
“There isn’t enough space. The changing rooms and that sort of building will be facing Edge Lane, right on that side of it. That is a tiny loss of green space. The rest of the park is going to be untouched, unless it is going to be improved by us.
“Ultimately, it’s decrepit, it’s crime-ridden, it’s an eye-sore and has been for 20 to 30 years. We have plans to build a community football and multi-sports hub on the concrete – it’s as simple as that.
“We would leave the rest of the green space untouched. If the community want to take it over themselves, we don’t have a problem with that. We want to work with the community, we are community people.”
Mr Manning believes the city needs a grassroots football facility such as the one his club has proposed for Rathbone Park. He said: “Halton have got a professional rugby league club and where we play at Widnes is an 11,000 seat council-owned sport stadium. Liverpool hasn’t got that.
“If you’re not Liverpool or Everton, there are 11 levels of football until you get to Lower Breck, Anfield Sports, which is a level below us, where there’s a seat. There is no football facility in this city where people can buy a drink, sit under cover from rain, be secure, bring your kids because you’re all enclosed and be safe. There are 11 levels of football and that’s in this city.
“This is the reason why we formed. Amazingly enough, ten years on, we’re still making the exact same argument that there’s nothing in this city where people can go and watch a game of high-level semi-professional football in comfortable surroundings, have a drink if they want, have a cup of tea, have a butty, meet the family, meet their friends, keep it low cost – a tenner for an adult and kids are free.
“You bring your kids and they can run around in the ground because they’re in a secure and safe area. That doesn’t exist in this city, it’s a scandal.”
Though Liverpool Council says it wishes to work with the club to find it a permanent home, Cllr Shortall does not want Rathbone Park to be the location for such a facility. He wants to keep the park in public hands, with an ultimate intention to regenerate it – which wasn’t possible for more than a decade.
He told the ECHO: “We couldn’t make improvements on it for 13 years. I was re-elected in May 2023 to be told they (the club) had put a bid in for it. What really broke my heart was I couldn’t do what I wanted to do with the park – redevelop it, put swings in, make an exemplar park for local children, with options for disabled children. I wanted it to be an exemplar park and put in a bid for section 106 money. Where the little kids could play, you could sit on a bench.”
Paul Taylor is chair of the group Friends of Rathbone Park, which was set up to object to development on the green space. About that, Mr Taylor said: “One of the main reasons why we put the group together to object was the mere fact that we didn’t believe it was in a suitable location (for the ground) and that they were taking a public green space out of the hands of the community.
“Rathbone Park had an option on it from Derwent Holdings. We were hounding Cllr Shortall to not allow any further access to that option, so it wasn’t given back to someone else to develop on that ground.”
Mr Taylor added: “The reason it is an eye-sore is because no money could be spent on the park during the period there was an option. We wanted to ensure that we could move it forward. Cllr Shortall did what his residents requested.
“We want to bring Rathbone Park into the 21st century and make it a place that people want to go to. We wanted an environment accessible to disabled children, designing a multi-use games area with 3G football pitch for Rathbone Park – accessible to all.”
However, a number of local residents believe the development of the football ground is exactly what the area needs, with COL FC promising to regenerate the park, provide sporting facilities and a community garden.
Graham said: “It’s a community football club that the community would have got behind. The local businesses could have had 2,000 people putting money in. I find it hard to believe any resident would be against it.”
He added: “There’s been no investment here. There are a lot of people who I’ve spoken to who are deeply unhappy with the decision not to proceed.
“We’ve been crying out for something like this for years. I couldn’t think of a better place for a City of Liverpool football ground. You’ve got transport links, it’s one of the first things you see when you drive into this city, on a main road into the city.
“This had the opportunity – considering the regeneration of Littlewoods as well – to be a boost for everyone around here, a real feel good story. The City of Liverpool could be playing here, it could be the regeneration of this part of the city. Nobody goes to that park. It could have been such a good news story, a win for everyone around here.”
On Thursday, council and COL FC representatives met to discuss the bid and the club’s ongoing search for a ground. Following that meeting Councillor Nick Small told the ECHO: “This was frank, but constructive. The Council is supportive of the work the Club does and its aspirations to grow the impact of community football in Liverpool and beyond.
“Council officers gave representatives of the Club extensive feedback of their initial expression of interest for a community asset transfer of the Rathbone Park site. There were substantial gaps in the Club’s initial submission.
“The Council also received a number of objections from the local community, including the Friends of Rathbone Park group. The Club were given the opportunity to resubmit their bid, but, after the Council received no information from the Club after over a year, the Council made the decision not to proceed with the community asset transfer of Rathbone Park. This decision is in line with Council policy.
“I realise that this decision is a disappointment for the Club and its supporters, but the Council is committed to an ongoing dialogue with the Club to find a suitable alternative site with a fully funded, viable scheme. We want to keep working with the Club constructively to explore alternatives and hope we can continue talking.”
Following the meeting, Mr Manning said: “Officials of the club met with officials of LCC yesterday at the Cunard Building. LCC set out their current position, which they have now put in writing to the club and which we respectfully disagree with.
“Our campaign to complete the CAT process for Rathbone Park will continue with the enormous backing we have received and continue to receive from the local community and from all areas of the city and region.”