York: a World Heritage city?
York is a City with an outstanding past and an exciting future. The quality and range of archaeological and historic buildings and layers and the quality and extent of the archives contained within the City make York one of the most interesting and important places in the world. York wants to pursue World Heritage status so that these outstanding universal qualities are recognised and celebrated.
The World Heritage (WH) Convention (adopted by UNESCO in 1972) was ratified by the United Kingdom (UK) in 1984. The Convention provides for the identification, protection, conservation and presentation of cultural and natural sites of "outstanding universal value", and requires a WH List to be established under the management of an inter-governmental WH Committee.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is responsible for the UK's general compliance with the Convention, and for nominating sites in England. The DCMS completed a review of the UK Tentative List of World Heritage sites in 2009. The DCMS has decided that a new UK Tentative List will be created. A simple, inexpensive, two-stage application process has been set out. Stage 1 applications must be made to the DCMS by 12th June 2010.
On 17th March 2009, the Executive of the City of York Council agreed that once the DCMS announced what the application process will be, York should apply for World Heritage status. This decision followed on from work carried out by the York World Heritage Steering Group, chaired by Mrs Janet Hopton MBE. The Steering Group will continue to meet and coordinate information to support the bid which will be made by the City of York Council.
The work of the Steering Group has demonstrated that WH status will deliver a number of significant economic and social benefits for the City. It will maintain and boost tourism visits and spend in the City. It will develop the strengths of York-based companies and University departments that research and interpret the past. It will encourage better design of new buildings in the City. It will underpin the quality of life which makes York a world-class place to live, learn and do business in. It will showcase York's successful policies in relation to conserving and understanding the archaeology of the city. It will lead to increased international links. Public consultation in 2008-09 demonstrated that there is overwhelming public support within the city for this bid.
If you want to know more please have a look at the links at the side of this page.
You can email comments to the Steering Group at worldheritageyork@googlemail.com