UN team happy with Bath heritage

International heritage watchdogs are today expected to say they are happy with the way Bath’s historic heart is being looked after.

And they will back controversial plans for the first phase of the redevelopment of the city’s Western Riverside zone.

The report of a two-man delegation which inspected the city last year on behalf of cultural body Unesco is being published today.

Council chiefs believe the inspectors’ four-page report gives policies for safeguarding the appearance of Bath - one of only two entire cities to be given World Heritage Site status - “a clean bill of health.”

The report, which is being discussed by a UN World Heritage Committee meeting this week, will however call for revised plans to be drawn up for the second and third phases of the Western Riverside development, and for key blueprints about the city’s future to be checked with Unesco’s World Heritage Centre.

The document will also say that more needs to be done to protect the “views to and from” the city, and that future developments “which could have an adverse and cumulative impact” on the landscape around Bath should be prevented.

The three-day fact-finding mission was sparked by concern over the consequences of the 2,200-home Western Riverside development and aimed to check that the whole city was being cared for.

But the duo concluded that the World Heritage Site was “very well managed” and that all major buildings and landmarks were in a “very good state of conservation and being closely monitored.”

Their report will say the height of the planned Western Riverside first phase is acceptable, concluding that even the eight-storey blocks planned by developer Crest would be no more intrusive than the existing gasometers.

Bath and North East Somerset Council leader Cllr Francine Haeberling (Con, Saltford) said: “The report gives a very open and extremely positive account of the way in which the World Heritage Site is managed. The council was certain of an excellent outcome and is pleased there is no threat to the World Heritage Site status of Bath, nor has there ever been.

“The council takes its guardianship of the World Heritage Site seriously and regards it as an inspiration to the city’s future.”

Concern over the Western Riverside and recent decisions to approve controversial schemes such as the extension to the Holburne Museum had led some conservationists and architectural commentators to claim that the city’s world heritage status should be removed.

Council director for tourism, leisure and culture David Lawrence said the authority was prepared to have a “robust” debate about heritage matters.

But he said: “What has been disappointing has been the constant negative side that has been raised. I don’t think some people recognise the wider damage to Bath that they do.”

The Bath Preservation Trust says the delegation’s views on the city’s green setting were highly important in the light of plans for the Bathampton Meadows park and ride site and the Government’s plans for 21,300 new homes across B&NES.

Chief executive Caroline Kay said: "We think that Unesco has rightly targeted the landscape setting , one of the outstanding universal values of the World Heritage Site, as a part of Bath which is vulnerable to inappropriate development. This is timely, and urgent; currently Bath is at risk from losing part of the green belt to a park and ride on the east of the city over water meadows, and an urban extension to the south west, each of which threaten to ‘suburbanise’ the essential rural hinterland which surrounds the Georgian city.

"We think the council should have made more of a commitment in its local development plan to the World Heritage Site by including Special Planning Documents (SPDs) on the landscape setting and the historic environment and we feel this would be a good first step in responding to the draft decision from Unesco.

‘We agree with the Unesco committee that the second and third phases of the Western Riverside should be reviewed and include revised densities and volumes of buildings. We continue to have reservations about Phase 1 of Western Riverside. In relation to architectural commissioning, we agree that in order to succeed in Bath, any contemporary design must be of the highest quality."

But the council says the park and ride proposals were presented in full to the inspectors.

A spokesman said: “The council’s transport proposals will enhance the World Heritage Site status of Bath because they will help reduce traffic congestion and improve the local environment.”

Unesco has recommended that an architectural competition be held to find designs for the subsequent phases of the Western Riverside.

It wants to see a "re-division of masses and heights of the buildings ....... which could give a new impact to the appearance of the project and so as not to add a new barrier within the northern and southern parts of the city."

The council said the later phases involved land not currently controlled by Crest.

A spokesman said: "It has always been likely that other developers will become involved as the scheme progresses. It is of course open to any developer to use different architects from time to time to work on individual parts of a development project."

You can read what Unesco said here 

http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/news/Unesco-said/article-1111343-detail/article.html