UNESCO Mission to Liverpool

9/3/2007

Liverpool's World Heritage Site was in the international spotlight in the middle of October 2006 as a mission to assess its "state of conservation" was undertaken on 18th-20th, on the instruction of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee which had met in Vilnius in July 2006. 

The "Reactive Monitoring" mission was the first such mission to any WHS in the UK - another Liverpool first! 

The background to the mission was that unprecedented conditions had been imposed on Liverpool's inscription onto the WH list in 2004 as a result of the many major development in and around the Site which had been flagged up in the nomination documentation. 

When some local objectors discovered UNESCO as a receptive ear to their concerns, they bombarded the WH Centre with letters in an effort to use UNESCO as the ultimate arbiter of acceptability. It was therefore no surprise that the WH Committee decided that it needed to check out Liverpool for itself.

The mission had given specific terms of reference to look at the conservation of the Site in its widest context, but with the special instructions to assess the impact of some major development proposals on the historic integrity of the Site.

Although the mission had been known about since July, the actual dates were only confirmed on 9th October, when it was agreed to defer the application for Neptune Development's Mann Island scheme from the Planning Committee on 10th. 

An extensive briefing dossier and a programme of presentations, tours and meetings both had to be prepared rapidly. 

But, as it was obvious that the mission called for high-profile international diplomacy, the short time-scale could not be used as an excuse damaging Liverpool's growing reputation for producing high standards of documentation and for giving a warm welcome to international guests. 

English Heritage pulled out all of the stops to ensure that the mission ran smoothly and all who were asked to meet the mission did so- stressing the importance of WHS status to the city's image. Louise Ellman MP specifically requested an audience and was not refused. 

Local and national media soon seized on importance of the mission, with some seizing the opportunity for a good "bad news" story, presenting doom-laden articles forecasting that Liverpool would be placed on the list of World Heritage Sites "In Danger" or even the "worst-case scenario" - being taken off the World Heritage list in its year of European Capital of Culture!

However, the City Council and its partners were confident that all of UNESCO's guidelines have been complied with since Liverpool's inscription in 2004 and were delighted to be able to show off all of the excellent conservation work being controlled through its Conservation Team and the Culture Company. 

A consistent message from virtually everyone the mission met was that new design and new buildings are crucial to sustaining the regeneration of the city and its outstanding historic environment.  

The mission comprised Ron van Oers, a Dutch urban expert from UNESCO's WH Centre and Michel Bonnette, an architect and planner from Quebec, specialising in heritage preservation and representing the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). They spent three days analysing the World Heritage Site and the city as a whole, and trying to "understand its dynamics" as well as looking in detail at major development proposals.

The special qualities of the waterfront can best be appreciated from the river, and so thanks are due to Mersey Ferries for organising a free trip on the ferry for the mission, and to the ferry's captain for giving Ron and Michel a quick lesson at the helm! Special thanks must also be given to the Central Library for rooting out an old scrap book of historic Canada, which kept Michel busy looking for his homeland haunts.

A very positive, preliminary report was received on 23rd October. It advised that the mission ".was impressed by the comprehensive programme put together by the State Party of the UK and the City Council of Liverpool." and that the "The state of conservation of the World Heritage site is good." .

The Mission had received presentations from the architects for the New Museum of Liverpool and the Mann Island scheme. The mission considered that the designs did not fully represent its ideal of ".harmonious integration utilizing a contemporary architectural expression that sympathetically refers to the historic environment, but not necessarily copies it.". 


However, it concluded that "Since all development schemes under consideration and presented to the mission do not alter or change, nor compromise the urban morphology of harbour and port areas with related structures and public buildings in any significant way, the Outstanding Universal Value (of the Site) is considered NOT to be under threat."

The report made three recommendations for further improving the management of the Site:

1. The Council should show caution in respect of the Mann Island and Museum of Liverpool schemes and ensure that the proponents and opponents of the schemes fully understand each others points of view. 

2. The Council should improve its management of new developments in the World Heritage Site, by adopting part of its its WH Management Plan as statutory guidance and producing detailed guidance for development throughout the Site.

3. The Council should raise the population's awareness of the motives which formed the basis for the city's inclusion in the World Heritage List and make it compulsory for developers to take this value into account when drawing up their proposals.

The report is a welcome endorsement of the responsible stewardship of the outstanding universal value of the Site by the City Council and its partners, and steps are already being taken to implement the recommendations. 

The mission prepared a similar final report which was considered by the WH Committee at its next meeting in June 2007 in Christchurch, New Zealand, when Liverpool was again discussed. T

he Committee effectively endorsed the recommendations of the mission and asked for a further report for consideration at its next meeting in 2008.

Liverpool City Council and its partners have commissioned the production of a) a Supplementary Planning Document to guide new development in and around the World Heritage Site, with financial assistance from the Northwest Development Agency and English Heritage and b) the production of a World Heritage Education and Interpretation Strategy, with financial assistance from the Liverpool Culture Company and English Heritage. 

It is anticipated that if these two documents are produced as required, they will satisfy the concerns of the WH Committee.

The improvement of standards conservation, management of the historic environment and control of new development will be an ongoing issue for Liverpool's WHS