Kirkby Ski Slope: Difference between revisions

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'''Kirkby skiSki slopeSlope''' was an [[Dry ski slope|artificial ski slope]] that was built in [[Kirkby]], near [[Liverpool]], England, in the 1970s. The ski slope never opened and was source of considerable controversy around how it was built and funded.<ref name="Live Uni - LFP">{{cite web |title='News you're not supposed to know': Uncovering the birth of Liverpool Free Press 1971-77 - Department of History - University of Liverpool |url=https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/history/blog/2021/birth-liverpool-free-press/ |website=www.liverpool.ac.uk |access-date=1 June 2024}}</ref>

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 nearby [[Wirral Council]] had spent in the construction of their ski slope at [[The Oval (Wirral)|The Oval Sports Centre]] in [[Bebington]].