Page:Hillsborough Taylor Interim Report Cm765.pdf/12

 PART I - WHAT HAPPENED AT HILLSBOROUGH?

CHAPTER 1 THE GROUND AND PRE-MATCH ARRANGEMENTS

Fixing The Venue

On 20 March 1989, the Football Association (the FA) requested that their Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest be held on 15 April at Hillsborough Football Stadium. The corresponding semi-final between the same two teams had been held there in April 1988. The arrangements had been successful in the view both of the police and of the host club. Sheffield Wednesday (the Club) were therefore willing to accommodate the 1989 match. South Yorkshire Constabulary were prepared to police it but only if the ticketing arrangements were the same as those for 1988. Otherwise, the FA would have to look elsewhere. Those arrangements did not please Liverpool or its supporters either in 1988 or 1989. They thought the ticket allocation was unfair for reasons to be explained later. Reluctantly, however, the police requirement was accepted and the match was fixed for 15 April at Hillsborough.

The Ground

The Hillsborough Stadium is some 2½ miles to the north-west of central Sheffield in the district of Owlerton. The ground was opened in 1899 on what was then a greenfield site by the river Don. The pitch lies roughly east to west. A plan of the ground and its immediate environs is at Appendix 1.

The west end, with which this Inquiry is principally concerned, is known as the Leppings Lane end. The east end abuts on Penistone Road, the A 61. To the south is the river Don and to the north a residential street, Vere Road, which runs between Leppings Lane and Penistone Road North.

Alongside the river is a private roadway giving access to the south stand, to the Directors' and players' entrances, and to the administrative block under the stand. The roadway gives both vehicular and pedestrian access between Penistone Road and Leppings Lane, but there are gates which can shut it off at each end. There is some car parking along this roadway principally for Directors, players and employees of the Club. The south stand dates from 1914 and is the oldest at the ground. It is all seating with places for 8,800. 5,500 of those are roofed over and 3,300 are uncovered.

The north stand is also all seating and accommodates about 9,700. Behind it is a gymnasium or sports hall. There are also a first aid room and police room close by.

The east end is all terracing and is known as the Spion Kop. It was enlarged and roofed over in 1986 and now accommodates some 21,000 standing spectators. There are crush barriers in the Kop running parallel to the goal line but no dividing fences to prevent free movement from side to side.

At the west or Leppings Lane end of the ground there is terracing close to the pitch. Behind it is the west stand which provides covered seating and was built in 1965 for World Cup matches, some of which were held at Hillsborough in 1966. The covered stand accommodates 4,456 seated spectators. The terracing in front of it extends higher in the corners between the stands and its total capacity was stated to be 10,100. At both the Kop end and the west end access to the pitch is barred by perimeter fencing. The fencing is about eight feet high mounted upon the low wall at the foot of the terracing. At the top of the fencing the wire returns back at a sharp angle for some 15 inches to make it difficult for anyone to climb over towards the pitch. There are gates at intervals along the perimeter fencing to afford access between terrace and pitch. These gates are less than a metre wide and were designed to be opened only from the pitch side for police purposes or in an emergency. They are marked and numbered on the plan Appendix 1.

Unlike the Kop end, the west terracing has not only crush barriers parallel with the goal line but radial fences at right angles to it, dividing the area into pens. This division was begun after an FA Cup semi-final in 1981 when crushing occurred due to overcrowding and gates had to be opened. It proceeded in stages, the final arrangement being shown on the plan Appendix 1. The first section of the west terracing moving south to north contains gates 1 and 2 and is known as pens 1 and 2 although in fact constituting only one pen. Next is pen 3 with one gate; next pen 4 with one gate; pen 5, which is extremely narrow, was intended as a sterile area to divide pen 4 from pen 6. This was to isolate home and away fans on occasions when both might be accommodated on the west terracing in separate pens. Finally there is pen 7 at the north-west corner. Pens 5,6 and 7 each have a perimeter gate. At the back of the pens, under the front of the west stand, there is a gate in Rh