Liverpool City Council has welcomed a recommendation that the city maintains its World Heritage Site (WHS) status.

An initial report published ahead of an annual meeting of the World Heritage Committee is recommending Liverpool is not deleted from the World Heritage list.

Last summer, the committee concluded that Liverpool’s status on the prestigious list would be considered for deletion in Bahrain later this month.

Alongside medieval monuments in Kosovo, Liverpool is the only other European site on UNESCO’s ‘in danger’ list.

The main threat to the city’s World Heritage status, as perceived by UNESCO, is the nature of proposed development in areas of the £5 billion Liverpool Waters scheme, specifically for its Central Docks neighbourhood, which was given outline planning permission in June 2013.

However, the new report shows that in close collaboration with the council and Historic England, Peel’s illustrative proposals for Central Docks have been reviewed in line with UNESCO’s recently published ‘Historic Urban Landscapes (HUL)’ guidance.

A resulting neighbourhood masterplan, focused on the human scale and the site’s heritage assets, offers a clearer justification for the profile and heights of buildings set out around a major central park.

The draft recommendation by UNESCO and heritage body ICOMOS is largely based upon the collaborative work of the council, government, Historic England and Peel Holdings, which resulted in a new Desired State of Conservation Report (DSOCR) describing the corrective measures Liverpool is proposing to protect the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of its World Heritage site.

The DSOCR, which was endorsed by the council’s cabinet in February and submitted to the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, will be fully examined and debated by the World Heritage Committee at its 42nd session in July.

The report focuses on the main issue of how the city needs to balance its projected population and economic growth over the next 15 years, which will see the creation of 35,000 new homes and 30,000 jobs, whilst protecting its WHS.

Latest Liverpool Waters CGI

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson says: “The decision to maintain Liverpool’s World Heritage status is very welcome news, and a testament to the efforts over the last 12 months to show UNESCO what the city is doing to celebrate is unique position.

“As the huge crowds who enjoyed the Tall Ships Festival at the weekend will have noted, Liverpool’s maritime heritage is very much a fundamental part of our cultural scene and the city is very keen to use our World Heritage status to shape our future tourism economy as well as our civic pride.

“The DSOCR report shows in great detail the lengths Liverpool has already gone and will continue to go, to balance the needs of a growing city whilst protecting our World Heritage status.

“This is a delicate task and involves all the major city stakeholders working together to understand very specific planning issues and creating solutions that works for the city and UNESCO.”

Sir David Henshaw, chair of Liverpool’s WHS taskforce says inviting the WHS committee to Liverpool would be “a crucial next step so members can see for themselves the progress that is being made in Liverpool”.

He adds: “This recommendation is good news in the sense that our status is not going to be removed. Liverpool is still on the danger list so there’s much work to be done. Fortunately much progress has been made and now there is a clear roadmap to develop.

“As well a greater communication with the WHS committee we also need to focus on how we engage more with stakeholders and communities so they can better understand how the site can shape the city’s future.”

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