Some of you may have read my paper delivered at the UNeECC Conference in Matera, Italy, in November 2019. It was entitled ‘Liverpool 2008 World Heritage Site(s): To Keep or To Lose’. It may be accessed via https://uneecc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/UNeECC_Proceedings_2019_materaB5_volume12_2020.pdf
At its most recent meeting in mid-June UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee recommended the city be deleted from the list of World Heritage sites with an official vote to take place in China in late July 2021. Liverpool’s leading academic with an interest in UNESCO World Heritage is Professor Michael Parkinson CBE of the University of Liverpool.
The following references may be of interest to fellow academics:
His original publication (no longer in print) was called Liverpool on the Brink (1985) and is available in pdf format at https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3115345/
His most recent (2019) overview of Liverpool’s situation is ‘Liverpool Beyond the Brink’ and is available from Liverpool University Press: www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/r/brink
Since then he has written an account of the impact of COVID-19 entitled ‘After COVID-19: Is Liverpool Still Beyond or Back on the Brink?’
https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/publicpolicyamppractice/covid-19/Parkinson-2020-is-liverpool-back-on-the-brink.pdf
He contributed to Liverpool City’s June 2021 response to UNESCO’s threat:
https://www.liverpoolworldheritage.com/news-and-events/
Since the most recent June 2021 UNESCO threat he has written the following response to the UNESCO:
https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2021/06/21/liverpool-unesco-and-world-heritage-status-what-next/
One of the major concerns of UNESCO was the impact of the proposed 60,000 seater Everton FC stadium on the Bramley Moore Dock part of the World Heritage site. Parkinson has produced a podcast about this issue:
https://constructive-voices.com/episode-five-8th-june-2021/
I hope you find this useful.
Bill Chambers
Photo: https://www.visitliverpool.com/things-to-do/unesco-world-heritage-site-p105381