Content deleted Content added
Hassocks5489 (talk | contribs) →Aftermath: + ref for death of George Leatherbarrow. |
m →Problems: Link |
||
| (25 intermediate revisions by 8 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{Short description|Artificial ski slope that never opened}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2024}}
{{coord|53.4751|N|2.9010|W|region:GB_type:landmark_source:GNS-enwiki|display=title}}
'''Kirkby
==History==
===Kirkby===
Kirkby saw rapid growth from a small settlement of 3,000 people in 1951 to town of 50,000 people in just ten years.<ref name="LE - Birth of Kirkby">{{cite news |last1=Echo |first1=Liverpool |title=Kirkby - remembering the birth of a community (GALLERY) |url=https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/kirkby---remembering-birth-community-3360327 |access-date=3 June 2024 |work=Liverpool Echo |date=16 November 2011 |language=en}}</ref> From 1958, the town had been administered by [[Kirkby Urban District|Kirkby Urban District Council]], but
Under council leader Dave Tempest, Kirkby Urban District Council wanted to spend any left over money they had on a project before the new council was formed and the idea of a dry ski slope was proposed by council architect, Eric Spencer Stevenson.<ref name="LFP - Sep 74">{{cite journal |journal=Liverpool Free Press |date=September 1974 |pages=10 |url=https://www.freepressarchive.com/issues/issue16/LFP16p10.pdf |title=Kirkby Ski Slope Scandal}}</ref>
Line 14 ⟶ 15:
The land chosen for the ski slope was situated between the [[M57 motorway|M57]] motorway and the (since demolished) Kirkby Stadium.<ref name="LE - Jan 2006">{{cite news |last1=Echo |first1=Liverpool |title=Welcome to the ski resort of... Huyton! |url=https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/welcome-ski-resort-of-huyton-3523187 |access-date=3 June 2024 |work=Liverpool Echo |date=17 January 2006 |language=en}}</ref>
Work started on the {{convert|45|m|ft}} slope in November 1973 with the cost estimated to be around £90,000.<ref name="LE - June 2024">{{cite news |last1=Heeds |first1=Chantelle |title=Here's how Kirkby's ambitious plan for 150ft ski slope hit the skids |url=https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/heres-how-kirkbys-ambitious-plan-15353527 |access-date=8 June 2024 |work=Liverpool Echo |date=4 November 2018 |language=en}}</ref> Local schoolchildren were asked to volunteer to help lay the artificial surface, but when there were not enough volunteers, the council ended up paying them 25p an hour to work at weekends.<ref name="LFP - Story of the free press: Part 4">{{cite web |title=Liverpool Free Press archive |url=https://www.freepressarchive.com/story4.html |website=www.freepressarchive.com |access-date=11 June 2024}}</ref>
Some concern was raised by locals that the slope not only faced into the sun, but that it ran towards a major road. A [[BBC]] ''Nationwide'' report pointed out that there was ample land in the other direction that could have been used instead if the slope was oriented in the opposite direction. After its completion, the slope needed additional funding to sort out bumps that had appeared on the surface and to provide railings to stop skiers falling off.<ref name="LE - June 2024" /> ===Problems===
The slope had been intended to open in 1974, but in autumn 1975 the project was abandoned due to concerns it was unsafe.<ref name="LE - Jan 2020">{{cite news |last1=Molyneux |first1=Jess |title=Merseyside's 'back to front' ski slope that nobody got to use |url=https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/merseysides-back-front-ski-slope-17597070 |access-date=8 June 2024 |work=Liverpool Echo |date=27 January 2020 |language=en}}</ref> No one had been allowed to ski on the slope as the council's insurers would not permit it, deeming it too dangerous.<ref name="LFP - Story of the free press: Part 4"/> The ''[[Liverpool Echo]]'' reported in August 1975 on the slope, stating that bubbles had appeared in the artificial surface caused by thousands of tons of earth subsiding within the slope.<ref name="LE - Aug 75">{{cite journal |journal=Liverpool Echo |date=12 August 1975 |title=Second shock for ski slope council}}</ref> Weeds were also beginning to protrude from the surface. The ''Echo'' claimed that the council had spent around £150,000 on the project by that point, in sharp contrast to the £12,000
By December 1975, the ''Echo'' was reporting that an insurance company was refusing to insure properties close to the slope as they thought the slope posed a danger.<ref name="LE - Dec 1975">{{cite journal |journal=Liverpool Echo |date=9 December 1975 |title=£30,000 ski slope shock for Kirkby}}</ref> The insurers were demanding that the height of the slope be reduced and daily checks be performed on it in the advent of bad weather.
Line 24 ⟶ 27:
===Controversy===
Journalists Steve Scott and [[Brian Whitaker]] of the investigative newspaper, ''[[Liverpool Free Press]]'' spent considerable time looking into the circumstances of the ski slope.<ref name="The Post - LFP">{{cite web |last1=Simpson |first1=Mollie |title=What happened to five journalists behind a radical Liverpool newspaper? |url=https://www.livpost.co.uk/p/what-happened-to-five-journalists |website=www.livpost.co.uk |access-date=3 June 2024 |language=en}}</ref> Printed between 1971 and 1977, it was
By November 1974, the ''Free Press'' had established that the earth had been sourced via an advert placed in the ''Liverpool Echo'' in December 1973, shortly after construction started.<ref name="LFP - Nov 1974">{{cite journal |title=Ski slope: A pile of cash - and a heap of rubbish |date=November 1974 |pages=5 |url=https://www.freepressarchive.com/issues/issue17/LFP17p05.pdf |journal=Liverpool Free Press}}</ref> The advert offered: "''Free tip in Kirkby for all suitable material''". Bore hole samples gathered by Knowsley Council would later show that the earth contained wood, bricks, colliery waste, sand and ashes - all of which would contribute to the subsidence already seen.<ref name="LFP - September 1975">{{cite journal |title=Ski slope is a pile of rubbish |journal=Liverpool Free Press |date=September 1975}}</ref>
Investigations by the ''Free Press'' would also uncover that the slope was built on land the council did not own and over a mains water pipe.<ref name="LFP - Sep 74" /> Knowsley Council later had to buy the land off Liverpool council.<ref name="LFP - Story of the free press: Part 4" /> Planning permission for the project was not granted until November 1973 despite an order for the artificial surface being placed in July of that year.<ref name="LFP - Feb 1976 - Ski-slope saga">{{cite journal |title=Ski-slope saga |journal=Liverpool Free Press |date=February 1976 |pages=8 |url=https://www.freepressarchive.com/issues/issue24/LFP24p08.pdf}}</ref>
As the investigations progressed, the ''Free Press''
* Tenders for work had been granted without the usual process being followed<ref name="LFP -
* Leatherbarrow had completed most of the work on the slope before a contract with the council was signed<ref name="LFP - Feb 1976 - CATHS">{{cite journal |title=Council architect tells his story |journal=Liverpool Free Press |date=February 1976 |pages=8 |url=https://www.freepressarchive.com/issues/issue24/LFP24p08.pdf}}</ref>
In addition, the paper
Tempest lost his seat on the council and within a month the ''Free Post'' and ''BBC'' had both covered the story, leading to Stevenson being suspended.<ref name="LFP - Story of the free press: Part 4" /> Stevenson resigned from his position at Knowsley Council in April 1976.<ref name="LE - June 2006">{{cite news |last1=Mansey |first1=Kate |title=Downhill all of the way. - Free Online Library |url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Downhill+all+of+the+way.-a0141130928 |work=www.thefreelibrary.com |publisher=Liverpool Echo |date=3 June 2006}}</ref>
===Aftermath===
Tempest, who also served as a magistrate, was arrested in the summer of 1977.<ref name="LFP - Story of the free press: Part 4" /> After police investigations, a trial for former council leader David Tempest, former council architect Eric Spencer Stevenson and builder George Leatherbarrow took place at [[St George's Hall, Liverpool#History|Liverpool Crown Court]] in 1978. Presided over by Mr Justice [[William Mars-Jones|Mars Jones]], all three men pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring together to commit corruption between January, 1967, and April, 1974.<ref name="The Times, June 1978">{{cite journal |title=Corruption plot by builder and councillors alleged |journal=The Times |date=6 April 1978 |url=https://archive.org/stream/NewsUK1978UKEnglish/Apr%2006%201978%2C%20The%20Times%2C%20%2360269%2C%20UK%20%28en%29_djvu.txt |access-date=3 June 2024 |language=English}}</ref>
Stevenson was jailed for three years in June 1978 for taking bribes for contracts
===Site today===
In 2006, the site was proposed as the location for a new stadium for [[Everton FC]], known as [[The Kirkby Project]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Everton FC stadium hit by new delay |url=http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/03/14/everton-fc-stadium-hit-by-new-delay-92534-23141513 |access-date=8 June 2024 |work=Liverpool Echo |language=en}}</ref> This project failed to get off the ground and was cancelled in 2009.
==References==
Line 46 ⟶ 51:
==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt_C0AAGPts] BBC ''Nationwide'' - "Infamous Kirkby ski slope is condemned", 16 October
[[Category:Artificial ski resorts]]
[[Category:Unbuilt buildings and structures in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Sport in Merseyside]]
[[Category:Political scandals in England]]
[[Category:1970s scandals]]
[[Category:Bribery scandals]]
[[Category:Unfinished buildings and structures]]
| |||