Liverpool World Heritage Disaster-A City in Denial

Liverpool's waterfront to be scrutinised at World Heritage Committee
Jun 19 2009 Liverpool Daily Post



THE changing face of Liverpool’s waterfront will come under the spotlight at meeting of the international body that gave the city its World Heritage status.
Government officials have drawn-up a report about the city’s progress as a conservation site for a crucial get together of Unesco’s World Heritage Committee in Seville, between June 22 and 30.
The meeting is especially significant, given the massive redevelopment that has been undertaken in the city.
Liverpool’s world heritage site will be among dozens of landmark sites being discussed.
Heritage campaigners against the redevelopment of land alongside the Three Graces fear the likes of the new Liverpool museum could see the city lose its heritage status.
Proposals for a 34-storey building at Princes Dock, another development close to the Liver Building and a 54-storey tower on the site of the former King Edward pub, could also jeopardise the city’s title, they say. But the Daily Post understands this is unlikely.

The report compiled by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport into Liverpool’s heritage site ordered by Unesco – the body responsible for protecting iconic sites – for the meeting said: Unesco’s own 2006 mission to Liverpool found:
Several projects such as the Paradise Project were contributing to bringing the heritage site, which was deemed to be fragmented, together;
The museum was not an imminent threat to the site;
The commercial development on the Mann Island site would not compromise the value of the site.
With regard to the 34-storey Princes Dock development, DCMS believes that it would not damage the value of the heritage site, although it accepts there would be some impact on views from the north, and says that English Heritage had no objection to the Liver Building Plot.
A decision has not yet been made on the planning application for the tower on the King Edward site.
Two years ago, there was huge debate about whether the city would be stripped of World Heritage Status.
But, at a global meeting in New Zealand, in 2007, Unesco ruled the proposed Pier Head development did not threaten the “universal value of Liverpool’s maritime mercantile city world heritage site”. However, it did order another report and made recommendations.
Wayne Colquhoun, chairman of Liverpool Preservation Trust, said: “The best views in Liverpool are being obliterated.
“Unesco could strip us of that title and we don’t deserve it, the way it’s being desecrated.”
Cllr Berni Turner, Liverpool Council’s Executive member for the environment, said: “We are taking every step to protect the World Heritage site but the whole point of World Heritage isn’t that we stop new development, it means it has to be of good quality and standard.”

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/06/19/liverpool-s-waterfront-to-be-scrutinised-at-world-heritage-committee-92534-23920964/ Helen who wrote the article asked me "Where exactly is the World Heritage Site".

Well it almost writes itself today except the facts don't quite stack up. Ms Turner says we are alright if we build good quality design. Well if the very people who comment on matters of international importance understood anything about design we would be. alright.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/04/milton-keynes-on-sea.html Look at the above pictures of the same view unfolding...clever eh!

The supplementary planning document has been buried despite Unesco ordering more debate on matters important to the public of Liverpool and further afield.

http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/Images/tcm21-149053.pdf This is like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/03/world-heritage-waste-of-time.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2006/03/14/capcult_regen_mann_island_feature.shtml

The Daily Posts editor Mark Thomas comments seems to be sticking up for all the developments that the very papers journalists themselves have criticized for years. I think he is putting a brave face on it all. http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/ourview/columnists/larryneild/tm_method=full%26objectid=17811986%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/ourview/columnists/larryneild/tm_method=full%26objectid=18166046%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/ourview/columnists/peterelson/tm_headline=style-designed-to-complement-its-surroundings%26method=full%26objectid=18419657%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/ourview/columnists/larryneild/tm_headline=mixed-messages%26method=full%26objectid=18546571%26siteid=50061-name_page.html

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/ourview/columnists/larryneild/tm_headline=uninspired-design%26method=full%26objectid=18810407%26siteid=50061-name_page.html This is just a few of the past comments by Liverpool's old style journalists who knew where the WHS was.