Liverpool submit fresh plans for women’s team training ground at Melwood

Fresh plans have been submitted for the future of Liverpool FC’s historic Melwood training ground. Earlier this year, it was confirmed how the club had completed a deal to retake ownership of the site in West Derby after vacating in 2020. It has gone on to become a training space for the Reds’ women’s team after plans for 170 new homes were scrapped.

Now, fresh designs have been submitted to Liverpool Council to combine the training facility with the existing Robbie Fowler Academy on site.

Back in June, housing group Torus confirmed they would no longer press ahead with proposals to construct hundreds of new properties on the site vacated by LFC after the club re-acquired its historic grounds three years after departure. This was done to provide an elite training facility for its women’s team and a centre of excellence to develop the Pro-Girls Academy.

Before this, they trained at Tranmere Rovers’ ‘the Campus’ facility on Leasowe Road, Wallasey. It is proposed the team will share the site with the Robbie Fowler Academy – a sports-based education college – which would have remained as part of the Torus application.

As a result, fresh planning terms have been put to Liverpool Council for the reinstallation of floodlights on three external pitches, a portable cabin for use as a welfare facility for the academy and LFC Foundation, as well as new signage to mark the club’s return.

Documents submitted as part of the planning application said: “Over a three-year period, the club has looked at more than 40 options to find a site for an elite training ground and academy that could sit alongside a community hub for its charitable arm, the LFC Foundation. Such opportunity arose earlier in 2023, when Torus agreed the re-sale of Melwood back to the club.

“The club reacquired Melwood in June 2023 and has since carried out an extensive refurbishment of the grounds, particularly the three playing pitches, and building to facilitate the re-opening of the elite training centre for LFCW.”

The LFC Foundation will work alongside The Fowler Academy to provide community outreach programmes at Melwood. The college is aiming to enrol up to 250 students on its courses from across the wider Liverpool city region.

A date has not been set for the plans to be considered by the city council’s planning department.