Headlines: £45m support package for Everton’s new stadium approved by Combined Authority

An investment package of up to £45 million to support the delivery of Everton’s new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock and the Goodison Legacy Project has been approved.

Council Leaders from across the Region voted in favour of a grant of £15 million to assist with infrastructure work to public space and heritage sites on and around Bramley-Moore Dock - as well as giving the greenlight to a loan of up to £30 million towards the overall project.

The funding will support the transformation of north Liverpool and south Sefton in the region’s biggest regeneration project in more than a decade.

As a condition of the Combined Authority funding, Everton has committed to targets for employment and training opportunities for local residents and the achievement of social value.

As well as providing jobs and apprenticeships and stimulating the area’s regeneration, the loan offers a return on investment, plus interest that could be used to fund other projects and services across the city region.

The stadium will take around three years to build and will become one of north of England’s largest construction projects.

Overall, the scheme will create up to 15,000 jobs including new roles at the completed stadium and employment linked to an increase in visitors to the city region.

Independent experts appointed to Audit Committee

Liverpool City Council has appointed two independent advisers to strengthen the scrutiny of its auditing and governance procedures.

As part of the response to the recent Best Value Inspection, the local authority has secured the services of two people with top-level experience in auditing and finance to sit on the Audit Committee as co-opted independent technical advisers. Stephen Gregory and Ramone Johnson will receive expenses but no allowance or remuneration.

More than a million new trees for Northern Forest project

Almost £15 million of funding will be pumped into the Northern Forest in the next year with just over one million new trees established.

The ambitious project, which aims to link trees across the M62 corridor from Liverpool to Hull, was launched in 2018 and already three million trees have been planted.

Simon Mageean, the Woodland Trust’s Programme Director for the Northern Forest, said: “This new funding is massively significant for this project and enables us to push on with this new phase.

“It will allow us to establish over one million new trees this winter and connect them better to the wider landscape, together with new woodlands in urban areas and rural areas across the Northern Forest.

“Not only do these new trees have the power to transform people’s lives through all the green space they bring in areas of traditionally low tree cover, they are also set to bring a big boost to our fight against climate change and encourage nature recovery.”