LONDON, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- English premier league club Everton FC announced Friday the date it is to submit its planning application for a multi-million dollar stadium on a riverfront site in Liverpool.
Plans to build a stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock will plunge Liverpool onto a collision course with Unesco over the threat the scheme poses to Liverpool's maritime World Heritage Site.
Liverpool's WHS is already on Unesco's at-risk register, and earlier this year the World Heritage Committee issued a final warning to the city to report by February what it is doing to conserve the WHS status.
Proposals for the new stadium have been cited as one of the issues of concern.
At its last meeting in July, the committee said if the report does not meet its satisfaction, the city's WHS will be deleted at its next meeting in July, 2020.
City Mayor Joe Anderson said developments, including the new stadium, were more important than keeping its World Heritage status.
Everton development director Colin Chong said Friday its detailed planning application for the new stadium will be submitted on December the 23rd . This will be followed by an outline application for a legacy project at Goodison Park, existing home of Everton FC.
Chong said on the club's official website that given the nature of the site, the club will address the many site-specific issues relating not only to the historic designation but to the legacy of the site.
"We have worked closely with the Liverpool Planning Authority and Historic England to shape the application and ensure the required detail is included to enable our proposals to be appropriately considered," he said.
He said that the site, as a former dock, will mean the work will require making it fit to house a state-of-the-art Premier League stadium.
"We have identified all the heritage assets including cobbles, capstones, mooring posts and former tram lines and how we can incorporate them into our plans as far as possible."
More than 43,000 fans responded to a club consultation exercise, with virtually everyone giving the project the thumbs-up.
Liverpool would be only the third location to lose a World Heritage Site status if Unesco vote next year to strip the city of the cultural badge.
