Heritage concerns have cast doubts over the Liverpool Waters scheme, as David Bartlett reports

THE chances are you have never heard of Peter Jones, but right now he has one of the most important jobs in Liverpool. The Liverpool council official is currently writing a report that will have huge ramifications for the city’s economy for perhaps the next 30 years.

Mr Jones is the development control manager for the £5.5bn Liverpool Waters scheme, which is due to go before the council’s planning committee in March.

The Peel project is the biggest scheme Liverpool council has ever considered, and covers the equivalent of 246 football pitches in floor space with two clusters of skyscrapers.

It brings with it the promise to create 20,000 jobs and regenerate the city’s derelict northern docklands.

But it covers parts of the city’s World Heritage Site, which stretches from the Albert Dock along the waterfront taking in the Three Graces, and up to Stanley Dock.

The building of a series of new skyscrapers would change the Liverpool skyline forever – and the plans have attracted a lot of attention.

Unesco, the UN body which oversees World Heritage Sites, sent an inspection mission to Liverpool in November, on the back of concerns expressed by the UK’s historic environment watchdog, English Heritage, that the Liverpool Waters scheme could damage the city’s WHS.

This week, the mission led by Dutchman Ron Van Oers delivered its report (read it in full here).

The damning 14-page document was unequivocal in its criticism for the project. The inspectors said it will damage the “outstanding universal value of the (World Heritage Site) beyond repair”.

“The historic docklands to the north complement those to the south, putting the Three Graces centre-stage in this more or less symmetrical city profile,” states the report.