GOVERNMENT cultural watchdog English Heritage has launched is strongest attack so far against Peel's £5.5bn plan to create a Manhattan-style “mini city” in the heart of Liverpool's World Heritage Site.
A seven-page, highly critical onslaught comes just days before the council's planning committee meets to decide whether the go-ahead it gave earlier this year to Liverpool Waters should be confirmed.
Council planning officers are recommending, next Tuesday, that the controversial scheme be approved.
But so serious are the concerns raised by English Heritage, it potentially increases the chances of the Government ordering a public inquiry.
Letter
Peel has already insisted that it has bent over backwards to take on board concerns raised by English Heritage, saying it won't make further concessions and will walk away if a public inquiry is called.
In the letter to Liverpool City Council's planning and building control officer, Peter Jones, Henry Owen-John, English Heritage Planning and Conservation Director for the North West, pulls no punches.
In the past few months talks have taken place about strengthening planning conditions to meet some of the concerns raised.
Owen-John said in order to try to assist the production of a successful set of conditions and obligations, English Heritage had engaged planning lawyers Shoosmiths to work alongside the council and provide additional technical advice.
Henry Owen-JohnThis new round of consultations with council officers culminated with a set of draft conditions which would have alleviated some of the concerns.
On August 10, council officers emailed the latest drafts of proposed planning conditions, though Owen-John said the new drafts were 'for information and not for for further consultation'.”
In his letter to the council, Owen-John says: “The latest draft conditions now bear little resemblance to those which benefited from the support of Shoosmiths and ourselves earlier this year.
“During the initial discussions we made suggestions as to how the archaeology of the site, some of it almost certainly of national importance, should be dealt with.
“Our recommendations were in line with industry-wide standards for such a scheme. The suggestions have been ignored. We have been advised by Shoosmiths that generally the conditions are muddled, badly drafted and insufficiently precise. They doubt they are legally sustainable.
“They comment that the conditions are based on flawed, diluted or inadequate supporting information, which impacts on the robustness and effectiveness of the conditions.”
Owen-John said, in English Heritage's view, Liverpool World Heritage Site and the wider docks present an ideal opportunity for economic, social and environmental gains that could be achieved jointly and simultaneously.
“Unfortunately, it is clear to us that Liverpool Waters has failed to take this opportunity,” he comments.
He reminded the council that in February the agency warned the impact on the historic environment of these proposals was very serious.
“In that assessment we assumed that detailed design could be appropriately controlled to mitigate, to some extent, the impact and that some heritage benefits would be properly secured.
Liverpool Waters
“We regret to say that despite our efforts to assist in this regard, the conditions are not, in our view, appropriate to control a scheme of this size and nature in this sensitive location. If permission is granted on these terms, it will be a matter of chance as to whether the heritage benefits that could be achieved are realised. We simply do not know whether the detail design will mitigate the overall impact, be neutral or make it worse.”
Weight
He urged the council to reconsider the conditions and obligations and enter into a meaningful dialogue with English Heritage and its advisers as soon as possible.
“If you proceed to make a decision without further changes to the conditions then you will understand that this will only add weight to our objection to the application. We would accordingly request that you refer this matter to the Department for Communities and Local Government,” he wrote.
In July, Unesco's World Heritage Committee resolved to place the Liverpool WHS on the World Heritage In Danger list. If any buildings are constructed that, in Unesco's view, harm the WHS, it is likely Liverpool's World Heritage Site will be struck off.
The Laz Word.... on conservation versus regeneration
To the World Heritage Committee, Liverpool's Central Docks present the largest complete Victorian dock development in the world - making it globally important for preservationists and conservationists.
To Peel, Mayor Joe Anderson and others eager to see regeneration, it is a wasteland, vacated decades ago when shipping moved to Seaforth and Bootle.
It is understandable for the Mayor and councillors to welcome, with open arms, the prospect of what would be the biggest regeneration project in Europe, creating thousands of desperately needed jobs.
Joe AndersonHowever, the status of a World Heritage Site is far more than a plaque on the wall. It takes years for Unesco's assessors to mull over whether a particular site is worthy of being included on its cultural roll of honour. Only a small handful of world heritage, out of 1,000 listed, have been struck off. It's the equivalent of being placed on a naughty step as high as the pyramids of Egypt.
This has become a conservation-versus-regeneration battle and it seems both combatants have retreated to their respective corners.
Liverpool City Council's Planning Committee has a quasi-judicial role in deciding whether planning applications should be approved or rejected.
So large are the plans for Liverpool Waters that the scheme will have to be referred to the Government's Department for Communities and Local Government. If the Secretary of State decides not to intervene – as Peel and the Mayor hope – the plans will have their much needed approval. The question of being struck off will arise if and when something is constructed that compromises the WHS.
Although planning committees are charged with standing aside from politics and judging applications merely on planning grounds, it must take guts and courage to ignore the wishes, if not the expectations, of political leaders.
Whilst Downing Street and the Chancellor may see Liverpool Waters as a golden opportunity for private investment, others in high places may see things differently. Liverpool may be charged with managing its World Heritage Site, but the custodians of Liverpool's cultural accolade is the Government.
