[2] From 1958, the town had been administered by Kirkby Urban District Council, but under the Local Government Act 1972 a new administrative area was due to be formed in 1974, known as the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley.
[7] A BBC Nationwide report from 16 October 1975 discussed concerns raised by some locals that the slope not only faced into the sun, but that it ran right to the shoulder of the A506 roundabout used by traffic entering and exiting the M57.
After its completion, the council appropriated an additional £5,000 to sort out bumps that had appeared on the surface of the slope and to provide railings to stop skiers falling off the sides.
[8] Journalists Steve Scott and Brian Whitaker of the investigative newspaper, Liverpool Free Press spent considerable time looking into the circumstances of the ski slope.
[12][13] By November 1974, the Free Press had established that the earth had been sourced via an advert placed in the Liverpool Echo in December 1973, shortly after construction started.
Bore hole samples gathered by Knowsley Council would later show that the earth contained wood, bricks, colliery waste, sand and ashes - all of which would contribute to the subsidence already seen.
[16] As the investigations progressed, the Free Press found that: In addition, the paper discovered that Stevenson and Tempest had received trips and gifts, both in connection with the work given to George Leatherbarrow.
Presided over by Mr Justice Mars Jones, all three men pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring together to commit corruption between January, 1967, and April, 1974.