Good News – Strange Claim
On 18th December 2020, Knowsley Council announced the welcome news that the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCR-CA) is providing funding towards developing the former site of Kirkby Library and the old Social Security building on the corner of Cherryfield Drive and Webster Drive.
The return of a multi-screen cinema – after decades without one – combined with food and drink outlets is sure to be popular with our local residents, and attract visitors to Kirkby. Knowsley Council and the LCR-CA are to be commended for forging ahead with this scheme, and we look forward to it being opened, although no planned opening date was mentioned.
There is however, a bizarre quote from Cllr Tony Brennan, councillor for the Shevington Ward in Kirkby and a Knowsley Council Regeneration and Economic Development Cabinet Member. Cllr Brennan said, “Earlier this year, we asked residents what they would like to see in Kirkby town centre. As well as a supermarket, people asked for a cinema and a greater choice of food and drink outlets.” And continues, “We have taken on board this feedback and have been working behind the scenes on the cinema scheme. We already have planning permission in place and our next priority was securing the funding.”
Presumably Cllr Brennan is referring to the seemingly rushed 3-day consultation that took place in March. This consisted of a free-form, unstructured consultation which invited residents to write their ideas on a card. The published summary of the consultation (Knowsley News) – lacking any statistics – does support this claim.
However, the reality is that Knowsley Council first released this plan in November 2016 (Knowsley News) when St. Modwen still owned much of Kirkby Town Centre. This is before St. Modwen pulled out of Kirkby and its partnership with Knowsley Council in the middle of 2019.
The council’s 2020 consultation was undertaken only a couple of weeks after Vision Kirkby released proposals for Kirkby Town Centre, including the aforementioned cinema and restaurant complex. These proposals were based on a well-structured consultation Vision Kirkby undertook during 2019, which included a couple of well-attended public meetings.
So, self-evidently this plan was not started as a result of the Knowsley Council consultation in March 2020, but is in-fact 4 years and 1 month in the making. Not exactly a stellar rate of progress – only 4 months shorter than World War 1 in fact – but it is welcome progress nonetheless!
The story of the old library site did not start in November 2016 though…
The original Kirkby Library which stood on the site was intended to be relocated to a new build beside the Kirkby Suite (now the Kirkby Centre, which houses the library) as part of both the 2010 and smaller 2013 Tesco plans to redevelop the town centre. In both plans the old library site was meant to become a set of retail units. These plans eventually collapsed in 2015 when Tesco pulled out of Kirkby and its partnership with Knowsley Council.
Even before this, the old library was scheduled for demolition as part of the joint 2006 Everton Football Club, Tesco and Knowsley Council plan for ‘Destination Kirkby’, which would have seen a new Everton stadium in Kirkby. Again, this site seems to have been intended for retail units.
The old library was actually closed all the way back in 2014, and stood as an increasingly vandalised eyesore until it was finally demolished in 2018, along with the old Social Security building that stood next to it.
And so, it has taken at least 14 years from the initial plan to demolish the old Kirkby Library to actually demolish it, clear the site, design a replacement, and secure funding.
It still needs to be built and be opened, and we invite Knowsley Council and the LCR-CA to give an estimated date for bringing the new cinema complex to life.
