‘Bid’ report spreads confusion
A BBC report that Berwick is to bid for World Heritage status is not correct, according to the town’s Cittaslow chairman Bernard Shaw.
The report appeared on the BBC Tyne and Wear’s online site last Thursday and immediately spread confusion with its statement that people in the town were preparing a bid for Unesco World Heritage Status.
However at a seminar held in the Maltings just over two months ago the opposite was agreed, as preparing a bid was deemed too expensive and too time consuming.
“We are not going to pursue World Heritage status,” Mr Shaw told the Advertiser this week. “I think it must be a genuine error on behalf of the reporter at the BBC. Her report was very positive and very complimentary about Berwick but she got the fundamental fact wrong.
“The decision was taken in November that we should not pursue World Heritage status as it could take 10 to 15 years of hard work, ongoing financial investment and there was no guarantee of success at the end of it. It was felt that in the present economic climate we should not go ahead although there is nothing to stop us looking at it again in three or four years time.”
The November meeting was the second time the issue had been looked at with it first being discussed at a conference in the town in 2005.
It was decided then that it was not the time to pursue a bid and instead it was agreed that Berwick should join Cittaslow, an international movement of towns across the world that have adopted a common set of goals and principles to ensure the highest possible quality of life for local residents and visitors alike.
At the 2005 meeting, it was also agreed to look again in a few years’ time at the possibility of submitting a World Heritage bid.
As a result, in November last year, a seminar was held to consider putting a bid forward for Berwick and the geographical area around it from Lindisfarne to Flodden.
However the conclusion was the same as in 2005.
“Six years later the same decision was reached - that it would take to much time and money with no guarantee of success,” said Mr Shaw. “It was disappointing but understandable given the current economic climate.”
When asked by the Advertiser about last week’s report, a BBC spokeswoman said she would phone Mr Shaw to clear the matter up but did not give any undertaking to publish a correction.
In the report which was headlined: “Berwick to be put forward for World Heritage status” there was no actual quote from anyone confirming the bid although Mr Shaw was quoted as saying: “The bid for status is at least a 15-year project.”
The report also listed Berwick’s many attractions including “the well-preserved 1570s Bell Tower, its ramparts ordered to be built by Elizabeth II to defend the town, and the Ravensdowne ice houses, built in the 1780s to keep locally-caught salmon fresh before being transported to London. But probably its most famous landmark is its Royal Border Bridge, which was opened by Queen Victoria in 1850.”
World Heritage is the designation for places that are of “outstanding universal value to humanity” and as such, have been inscribed on the World Heritage List to be protected for future generations “to appreciate and enjoy”.
Places as diverse and unique as the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Galápagos Islands in Ecuador, the Taj Mahal in India, the Grand Canyon in the USA, or the Acropolis in Greece are examples of the 911 natural and cultural places inscribed on the World Heritage List to date.
Greater awareness leads to a general rise in the level of the protection and conservation given to heritage properties.
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