UNESCO Mission to visit Liverpool

9/8/2011

The state of conservation in Liverpool World Heritage Site was discussed at the meeting of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee in June 2011, in response to a consultation on the proposed Liverpool Waters development (see Planning Application 10O/2424 and http://www.liverpoolwaters.co.uk).
 
Visualisation of Liverpool Waters with conserved Clarence Graving Docks.

The Committee:

• Expressed its "extreme concern at the proposed development of Liverpool Waters, in terms of the potential impact of its dense, high and mid-rise buildings on the form and design of the historic docks and thus on the Outstanding Universal Value of the property."

• Urged the State Party to ensure that the proposals are not approved, as failure to do so could lead to consideration of loss of the Outstanding Universal Value of the property.

• Requested "a joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS reactive monitoring mission, as soon as possible, to assess planning procedures and the overall development strategies for the propert.

The report to the Committee was based upon a Heritage Impact Assessment, which had been commissioned by English Heritage. The conclusions of that assessment were that the development would have a "significantly damaging negative impact on the Outstanding Universal Value" of the World Heritage Site.

Liverpool City Council considers that, ideally, the World Heritage Committee should have seen the Heritage Impact Assessment commissioned by English Heritage alongside two other comparable Heritage Impact Assessment reports, undertaken by Liverpool City Council and the applicant, as the conclusions of these assessments are different to those of the report commissioned by English Heritage.

Even so, Liverpool City Council looks forward to the mission as an opportunity to:

• Explain the planning and conservation policies.

• Fully explain the Liverpool Waters development to the representatives of UNESCO and ICOMOS.

• Provide a balanced assessment of all of its impacts.

• Show the mission the current derelict state of much of the application site.

• Demonstrate the many of the examples of good practice in urban regeneration, conservation and heritage management which have been achieved in Liverpool since the last mission in 2006

Similar missions will be visiting The Tower of London WHS and the Palace of Westminster WHS. The date of the missions is not yet known.