{"id":2177992,"date":"2026-08-25T14:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T13:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/?p=2177992"},"modified":"2026-08-25T15:01:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T14:01:33","slug":"merseytravel-handling-of-sandhills-rail-station-crowd-control-mauled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/news\/2177992-merseytravel-handling-of-sandhills-rail-station-crowd-control-mauled","title":{"rendered":"Merseytravel handling of Sandhills rail station crowd control mauled"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bid to extend and improve passenger queueing facilities at Liverpool\u2019s Sandhills rail station after events at Everton\u2019s Hill Dickinson Stadium was deferred pending a site visit today (August 25) – but not before a mauling for the transport authority over its planning and treatment of passengers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sandhills is the closest station to Everton\u2019s 51,769-capacity stadium, which officially opened a year ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fans have been critical of the crowd-handling arrangements which regularly involve long queues for access to the station.<\/span><\/p>\n

Merseytravel submitted proposals to Liverpool City Council Planning Committee – which were recommended for approval, with conditions – to expand the existing crowd management facilities within land belonging to Merseyrail to the side of the station aimed at reducing the overcrowding on the highway outside.<\/span><\/p>\n

They also included provision of a new bus stop and improved facilities for passengers, the welfare team, and the emergency services, with a permanent toilet block and a location for catering facilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The proposals follow a number of objections from a neighbouring business premises on the opposite side of Sandhills Lane, relating to access to their premises on match days during the previous football season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cllr Richard Kemp was the first to comment on the proposals, which included terms such as \u201ccorralling\u201d fans into \u201csterile areas\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt\u2019s now nine years since the passenger transport authority knew there was going to be a new stadium at Everton Football Club.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLast year you introduced something which the mayor announced as pens, which to me was like the greeting area for Auschwitz. Absolutely disgraceful.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you\u2019re coming up with something now which talks of corralling, compounds, sterile areas. How long will it take someone to enter the corralling system and get out of it?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWouldn\u2019t a better thing be to extend the station and actually put more methods of ingress and egress to it, because what you\u2019re doing is treating people like cattle in this proposal, and it isn\u2019t good enough after 10 years which it will be before this gets introduced. You should have done better than this.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe authority has been totally incapable of planning for this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cllr Pat Moloney said: \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you get it right first time?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And he added: \u201cThe language is appalling and dehumanising. Corralling area, a sterile area. This is human beings we\u2019re talking about here. I\u2019ve got to say Cllr Kemp summed it up correctly – this is like something like a horrific death camp in Nazi Germany.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In response, Daniel Hopkins, from the travel authority, said: \u201cIn terms of the language, that was just the technical language used in previous applications for our operations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe\u2019re just learning from our lessons. We didn\u2019t envisage the amount of volume there. Maybe we should have done it previously.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cllr Billy Lake raised the issue that the holding area is completely open to the elements, saying: \u201cI don\u2019t want to be standing in the rain for hours. That is a glaring omission. This application doesn\u2019t seem a very well prepared application.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Daniel Hopkins said: \u201cIt is open to the elements there. We are looking at the financial costs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His Merseytravel colleague, Paul Collins, added: \u201cHands up, this is completely lessons learned.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cllr Moloney proposed an amendment before taking the vote on the application for the decision to be deferred, pending a site visit on more information on site plans, for emergency exit routes, capacity and frequency of trains and the number of fans who use the train service, \u201cfor us to be able to gauge the efficacy of this application\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The amendment was carried and the application was deferred.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everton has recently bid to increase the number of concerts it can host at the stadium.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under current planning approvals it can stage four full capacity live music events a year, but it has applied to increase this to eight.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Proposals to increase crowd control measures deferred pending a site visit <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217725,"featured_media":2162947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136545,47996],"coauthors":[46761],"class_list":["post-2177992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-government","category-transport","tag-featured-story","tag-liverpool-city-region"],"yoast_head":"\nMerseytravel handling of Sandhills rail station crowd control mauled<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Proposals to increase crowd control measures deferred pending a site visit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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