Thursday 9 June 2011

Liverpool "Pulled In" by Unesco Under A State Of Conservation Alert.

We at LPT as adviser's to Unesco have kept them regularly informed.


We have been dealing with the DCMS for 6 years now who are the body responsible for upholding World Heritage Principles.
Not the local councillors and their cronies who are far too embroiled with its “cosy” developers.
We have worked so hard to ensure that the principles of Liverpool’s WHS inscription are upheld, for not just the benefit of a few speculators but for its citizens against a relentless tide of binge build mentality that now sees us waking up with an architectural hangover.
It is with regret that successive city councils forget that the signing up to a Unesco charter comes with responsibilities attached and these important matters go above the need to enable any developer who comes along to knock up a few thousand apartments and say its progress.

Mann Island and Liverpool’s World Heritage Waterfront are a good reference point. They promised us Iconic and delivered I chronic, a laughing stock, an example of how to destroy your best asset, a world heritage asset with, Three Black Coffins an anachronism of a museum that is a sad rip off of the Rome MAXXI, oh, and its little brother the 2009 BD Carbuncle Cup winning Terminal Ferry Building right in front of the Three Graces.

To thinks that all this was happening while Liverpool was European Capital of Culture.

The wider aspect of Liverpool’s World Heritage principles in general were ordered to be protected, by Unesco, and were also ordered to be taught to Liverpool’s citizens, by its city council, as a let off the hook after its 2006 monitoring mission and its subsequent directives after World Heritage Committee meetings in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and to the DCMS.

This has not been done even now when Liverpool goes before Unesco in June, again, under a state of conservation.
It is up to us at the LPT, as world heritage watchdogs and concerned individuals to inform the press of the embarrassing occasion and thus educate the public as to the risks. It does not seem despite Liverpool having a world heritage officer, that the city council will provide any information to advise the public as a whole.
Liverpool could be put on the Unesco at risk register for failing to take the WHS principles seriously and to protect its values.

English Heritage and CABE have said the Liverpool Waters proposals could cause significant harm to the Overall Universal Value of the World Heritage Property while the city council under its misguided leadership go head long into building Shanghai on the Mersey at the behest of the rather arrogant Peel Holdings.

We are not apposed to development and if as it seems Peels plans are to close down Liverpool’s Docks and transfer its business to Salford (losing any future jobs) and build skyscrapers in its place, then the principles of Liverpool’s inclusion on the world heritage list could be affected to such a detrimental way that we could in fact lose the WHS status.

This would be a most embarrassing state of affairs indeed, and it could happen.
It seems that the simplest way to respect the property if development is to take place, is to look to more humane examples such as Amsterdam where the size and scale of development around its historic waterways is both humane and functional and this city should be set up as an example.

Dubai should not be the point of reference.

There is no point in destroying your best asset for short-term gain for tax exiles, speculators and spivs.

http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2011/06/liverpool-back-under-unesco-microscope.html
 
In a draft speech that we have obtained prepared by Liverpool City Council, Joe Anderson will make at the Liverpool Office, or Embassy in London the last paragraph says Quote;
 
"Liverpool is full of investment opportunities it is not just the Liverpool Skyline that is unrecognisable but its ability and confidence to do business"
Says it all really.

2 comments:

  1. http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/BLT/BUE_Docs/kenny.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/16/liverpool-world-heritage-status-risk

    ReplyDelete