Opinion
Featured in Bath Chronicle, 9th July 2009
Dear Editor,
Protecting and nurturing Bath’s position as a world-class centre of heritage, history and architectural beauty must always be a top concern for all of us living in this unique city.
Protecting all this heritage and history within a living, working city will never prove an easy task. But to all of us who value Bath’s World Heritage Site status, it was extremely pleasing to see the UNESCO World Heritage inspectors give our city such a positive report, describing Bath’s heritage as “very well managed”.
Local Conservative in Bath have always firmly believed that it is not only possible, but also beneficial to develop a successful, prosperous, 21st century city whilst still protecting and enhancing its heritage. We should all be proud that UNESCO has recognised that we have an important historical city which is willing to look to the future.
The majority of UNESCO’s comments on the way Bath’s heritage is looked after were positively glowing, and we should also extend our gratitude to those in the Council, as well as organisations such as English Heritage, who work hard to protect Bath’s heritage.
The World Heritage report highlighted certain points which the Council must take on board, such as ensuring that the second and third phases of Western Riverside are developed in way fitting to the heritage status. It was good to see, though, that the Western Riverside development was given the all-clear as it is so vital to Bath’s prosperity.
UNESCO’s comments on protecting views to and from Bath were also very welcome, and add weight to those of us campaigning against unmitigated housing development around the city.
Ultimately, the publication of this report shows that Bath’s World Heritage status is not a barrier to creating a modern city, but actually a basis on which we can do it.
Yours faithfully,
Cllr David Hawkins,
Conservative, Lansdow