World Heritage Site (Proposed)
Consultation launched on proposed UK Heritage Sites
Department for Culture, Media and Sport Press Release, 21 August 1998
A consultation on the UK sites to be nominated to UNESCO for World Heritage Site status over the next five to ten years was launched today by Culture Secretary Chris Smith. 32 sites in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies are recommended for inclusion in the UK's new Tentative List of World Heritage Sites.
The recommended sites include: the Lake District, Cumbria; the Forth Rail Bridge, Scotland; Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, Wales; Londonderry Walled City, Northern Ireland; and Gibraltar Fortress.
Chris Smith said:
April 6th 1999
'The UK already has 17 World Heritage Sites, ranging from sites of supreme archaeological or historical interest such as Stonehenge and Fountains Abbey, to places of great natural beauty such as St Kilda and the Giant's Causeway. They rank alongside the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China and the Grand Canyon as some of the most treasured places on Earth.
'Last October I affirmed the Government's commitment to UNESCO's World Heritage Convention and announced a review of the UK's Tentative List of sites that could be nominated for World Heritage Site status over the next five to ten years. I set up a committee under English Heritage's chairmanship comprising experts in the built and natural heritage fields to advise on potential sites in England, the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies; my colleagues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland made their own arrangements for the review.
'The review is now complete and today I am launching a UK-wide consultation to obtain views on the resulting recommendations and to make sure we have got the selection right - in particular whether there are any important omissions. We will welcome comments both on the significance of the sites proposed and on the practical implications of inclusion in the list.
'I am personally committed to ensuring that the UK not only supports the World Heritage Convention in its work to protect the World's prime cultural and natural sites for future generations, but also sets an example in heritage preservation to which others will aspire. I want to see our outstanding sites achieve the international recognition they deserve, and I want to ensure that they are cared for and presented to people in the best way possible.'
The consultation document is being sent to all local authorities, owners and managers of sites likely to be affected by the recommendations, as well as to heritage and conservation bodies and other organisations and individuals who have previously expressed an interest, including those who have suggested sites which have not been recommended. Comments are invited by 30 October 1998.
In the main, the recommendations focus on categories of sites that are not currently well represented by the UK's World Heritage Sites. The selection reflects concerns expressed in recent years by UNESCO about the preponderance on the World Heritage List of cultural sites over natural ones, and the over-representation of sites focusing on palaces, cathedrals and historic towns in Western Europe. For the new Tentative List, it was felt that emphasis should be given to the UK's industrial heritage and global influence.
Nine themes of sites were identified as being under-represented on the UK's current World Heritage List. Out of some 120 sites considered, 32 examples have been selected, mainly falling within those themes, that would be likely to meet UNESCO's stringent criteria:
CULTURAL SITES
1) Estuarine Sites The Wash and North Norfolk Coast, England
2) Species-rich Habitats - Created by the Interaction of Man and Nature [see below under cultural landscapes]
3) Geological Sites East Devon and Dorset Coast, England; The Cairngorms, The Highlands, Scotland; The Flow Country, Highland, Scotland
NATURAL SITES
4) Cultural Landscapes The Lake District, Cumbria, England; The New Forest, Hampshire, England
5) The Origin of Early Man Boxgrove, Sussex, England; La Cotte de Saint Brelade, Jersey
6) Insular Contribution to Early Medieval Europe Monkwearmouth/Jarrow monastic sites, Tyne and Wear, England
7) Landscape Gardens Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England; Mount Stewart, County Down, Northern Ireland
8) Industrialisation Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, Torfaen, Wales; Cornish Mining Industry, England ; Dallas Dhu Distillery, Moray, Scotland ; Derwent Valley, Derbyshire, England; Forth Rail Bridge, City of Edinburgh and Fife, Scotland; Manchester and Salford (Ancoats, Castlefields, Worsley), England; New Lanark, South Lanarkshire, Scotland; Paddington/Bristol Railway, England; Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Wrexham, Wales
9) Britain's Global Influence Chatham Naval Base, Kent, England; Gibraltar Fortress; Liverpool Commercial Centre and Waterfront, England; Town of St George, Bermuda; Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, London, England; Darwin's Home and workplace - Down House and environs, Kent, England; Sir Walter Scott's home, Abbotsford, Borders, Scotland ;
10) Other Sites Mousa Broch, Shetlands, Scotland; Navan and Armagh City, Northern Ireland; Londonderry Walled City, Northern Ireland; Stirling, Castle and Upper Town, Scotland; Fountain Cavern, Anguilla, West Indies
Notes:
1. Copies of 'UNESCO World Heritage Sites: A Consultation Paper on a New United Kingdom Tentative List of Future Nominations' from DCMS Press Office. Photographs of the sites are available from the English Heritage PixElect site on the PA Bulletin Board.
2. In the light of comments received, the UK Tentative List will be finalised and decisions taken on the boundaries of the sites to be notified to UNESCO. Formal nomination to UNESCO is a separate and lengthy process. The timing of nominations will be decided by the Government.
3. Comments on the recommendations should be sent by 30 October 1998 to: Ms Lisa Ray, Buildings, Monuments and Sites Division, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2-4 Cockspur Street, London SW1Y 5DH.
4. The World Heritage Convention was adopted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1972 and has now been ratified by 147 states. The United Kingdom ratified the Convention in 1984 and submitted its first Tentative List in 1986. The Convention provides for the identification, protection, conservation and presentation of cultural and natural sites of outstanding universal value, and requires a World Heritage List to be established under the management of an inter-governmental World Heritage Committee. The Committee is advised on cultural sites by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and on natural sites by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Individual governments are responsible for the nomination of sites, and for ensuring the protection of sites which are inscribed in the List. There are currently 552 World Heritage Sites, of which 418 are cultural, 114 natural and 20 mixed.
5. Inclusion in the World Heritage List is essentially honorific and leaves the existing rights and obligations of owners, occupiers and planning authorities unaffected. A prerequisite for World Heritage Site status is, however, the existence of effective legal protection and the establishment or firm prospect of management plans to ensure sites' conservation and presentation.