Andy Burnham launches
debate on the future designation of World Heritage sites in the UK
DEPARTMENT FOR
CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT News Release (130/2008) issued by COI News
Distribution Service. 2 December 2008
From the lofty
spires of Westminster Abbey to the rugged beauty of the
Giant's Causeway and the Causeway Coast, how best do we
protect the UK's World Heritage Sites? asks a consultation
launched today by Culture Secretary Andy Burnham.
'Identifying, protecting and promoting our World
Heritage' seeks views on questions such as:
* Should we add further sites to the World Heritage List at the
same - or a slower - rate, or stop nominations all together?
* What are the costs, benefits and responsibilities that go with
designation? Is it worth having?
* What are the measures that we can take to clarify and
strengthen protection for World Heritage Sites?
* Does the UK's current approach to World Heritage support
the UK, crown dependencies and overseas territories in protecting
and promoting their cultural and national heritage, particularly
in relation to UNESCO?
Culture Secretary Andy Burnham said:
"We live our lives against a rich tapestry of historic
buildings, cities, monuments and landscapes. They help us
understand how our world and its cultures, communities and
traditions were formed. So it is important that they are protected
for future generations.
"In the UK and our overseas territories we are lucky to have
27 sites on the World Heritage List, from the world renowned like
Stonehenge to the less well known but equally significant
Ironbridge Gorge, the birthplace of modern industry.
"But it is now ten years since we last looked at the UK
policy on nominations to World Heritage Sites. Set against a
backdrop of increasing nominations, a request from UNESCO for well
represented countries to slow nominations and an evolving
selection criteria I feel it is the right time for the UK to
review its World Heritage Policy."
There are currently 27 World Heritage Sites in the UK and its
overseas territories, forming part of the wider World Heritage
List of 851 cultural and national heritage sites recognised by
UNESCO as being of outstanding value.
At present all nominations added to the World Heritage List are
taken from the UK Tentative List - a shortlist of sites, updated
every ten years, which have been judged by the UK to fulfil the
criteria demanded by UNESCO in order to be recognised as being of
'outstanding value'.
In the 10 years since the UK last drew-up it's Tentative
List UNESCO have asked member states well represented on the World
Heritage List - mainly European countries including the UK - to
slow down or suspend their nominations. More recently, in 2005,
it was recommended that priority would be given to specific land
or marine habitats such as grasslands, wetlands or deserts. In
some cases UNESCO named sites such as the artic tundra, central
Asian Deserts or the Chagos Archipelago which, if nominated, would
be very likely to be added to the World Heritage List.
Ahead of today's consultation, DCMS with its funding
partners Historic Scotland and Cadw commissioned a cost benefit
analysis of World Heritage Site status.
Undertaken by Price WaterhouseCoopers, the report involved
interviews with stakeholders, an e-survey of all UK sites, and six
case studies of representative sites and associated local opinion surveys.
The review is published today alongside the consultation paper.
Key findings include:
* WHS status does not in itself provide any additional statutory
protection, although the quality of development around such sites
may be superior.
* Costs are rising - currently up to £400,000 to bid for World
Heritage Site (WHS) status and £150,000 p.a to maintain
* Benefits of tourism and regeneration arising from WHS status
have been overstated, with very low percentages of visitors being
aware of such status or motivated by it.
* While additional funding often follows inscription, much of
this comes from UK heritage or conservation bodies - benefit for
WHS is at the expense of heritage sites elsewhere.
The consultation will run for 12 weeks until 24 February 2008.
Copies of the consultation document and PricewaterhouseCooper
report can be downloaded from: http://www.culture.gov.uk
Notes to Editors
ENDS
Notes to editors
1. The UK joined the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in 1984.
The Convention established the World Heritage List as a means of
recognising that some places, both natural and cultural, are of
sufficient importance to be the responsibility of the
international community as a whole. By joining the Convention,
nation states are pledged to care for the World Heritage Sites in
their territory as part of protecting their national heritage, as
well as to protection of their cultural and natural heritage as a whole.
2. The UK currently has 27 World Heritage Sites:
* Durham Cathedral and Castle (inscribed 1986)
* Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd (1986)
* Studley Royal Park including the ruins of Fountains Abbey (1986)
* St Kilda (1986 extended in 2004 and 2005) (natural and cultural)
* Giant's Causeway and Causeway coast (1986) (natural site)
* Ironbridge Gorge (1986)
* Stonehenge, Avebury and associated sites (1986)
* Blenheim Palace and Park (1987)
* Palace of Westminster, St Margaret's Church and
Westminster Abbey (1987)
* City of Bath (1987)
* Frontiers of the Roman Empire: Hadrian's Wall (1987,
extended in 2005)
* The Tower of London (1988)
* Canterbury Cathedral (with St Augustine's Abbey and St
Martin's Church) (1988)
* Henderson Island, South Pacific Ocean (1988) (natural site)
* Edinburgh Old and New Towns (1995)
* Gough and Inaccessible Islands, South Atlantic Ocean (1995,
extended 2004) (natural site)
* Maritime Greenwich (1997)
* Heart of Neolithic Orkney (1999)
* Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications Bermuda (2000)
* Blaenavon Industrial Landscape (2000)
* Dorset and East Devon Coast (2001) (natural site)
* Derwent Valley Mills (2001)
* New Lanark (2001)
* Saltaire (2001)
* Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2003)
* Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City (2004)
* Cornwall and East Devon Mining Landscape (2006)
3. In addition, we have already announced our proposed
nominations for the next four years which are as follows:
* Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal - nominated in January 2008 for
consideration in July 2009
* Darwin's Landscape Laboratory - to be re-submitted in
January 2009 for consideration in July 2010;
* Twin Monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow - to be nominated in
January 2010 for consideration in July 2011.
4. The sites which remain on our 1999 Tentative List are:
* Chatham Naval Dockyard
* Darwin's Landscape Laboratory
* The Lake District
* Manchester, Trafford and Salford
* The New Forest
* Great Western Railway
* Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
* Shakespeare's Stratford
* Twin Monastery at Wearmouth and Jarrow
* Wash and North Norfolk Coast
* The Cairngorm Mountains
* The Forth Rail Bridge
* Mount Stewart Gardens
* Fountains Cavern, Anguilla
* The Fortress of Gibraltar
5. Press enquires to Sally Aldous on 020 7211 6266. Copies of the
consultation document and PricewaterhouseCooper report can be
downloaded from: http://www.culture.gov.uk
Public enquiries 020 7211 6200
http://www.culture.gov.uk
2-4 Cockspur Street
London SW1Y 5DH
http://www.culture.gov.uk