The Confederation of British Industry has urged UNESCO to carefully consider its threat to remove Liverpool’s World Heritage status.
Last week, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee called on the government to refuse planning permission to the Peel Group’s £5.5bn Liverpool Waters scheme. It expressed its “extreme concern” at the 150-acre waterfront regeneration project and said that Liverpool’s continued status as a World Heritage site could be up for discussion in 2012.
CBI North West chairman Damian Waters has urged UNESCO to avoid a “knee jerk” reaction, saying that removal of World Heritage status would be a blow to the city.
He said: “I do not know what has prompted this sudden hostility from Unesco but it is rather ill-informed and most unfortunate.”
“Out of the World Heritage sites in the UK, Liverpool is one of the most important because it marks Britain’s business and commercial heritage. This site is not a monument, it is at the thumping, beating heart of Liverpool’s commercial district. And in that sense it is fundamentally different to tourist sites such as Stonehenge or Durham Cathedral.”
UNESCO is due to send a mission to Liverpool this autumn to examine the scheme.
daniel.cunningham@estatesgazette.com
