DO WE NEGLECT OUR PAST TO PRESERVE OUR FUTURE?- Sue Kinsella

The city of Liverpool has been in the press this month for various reasons, from the opening of the Museum of the Liverpool - the first and largest national museum built in the UK for more than a century - to the celebration of 100 years of the Liver Building, the first skyscraper to be built in the UK.

Both of these iconic buildings are situated right on our waterfront and form part of Liverpool’s heritage . But the news that has sent shockwaves across the city and created talking points on many social media sites is the debate on whether Liverpool may lose its “UNESCO World Heritage” status if the plans to develop the Enterprise Zone, known as Mersey Water scheme (based on the waterfront) goes ahead.

The Mersey Water Scheme is set to create 25,000 new jobs in the city and bring with it a vast amount of international investment. Something the UKTI is encouraging as it has created partnerships with local businesses to deliver a range of programmes helping promote our city along with the rest of the UK. At the beginning of the year the Liverpool Embassy was launched in London to showcase what is great about our city and Liverpool was the only UK city to attend the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010. In February 2011 Liverpool Vision were presented with a special China Recognition Award 2011 for its work at the World Expo, surprisingly during the Shanghai Expo in 2010 the most popular song, sung by over 17,000 people, was “Hey Jude” by the Beatles.
But does Liverpool have the X-Factor and do we really need the World Heritage status to stay on the map? Is Liverpool’s history and heritage really that important and is it possible to retain the level of tourism that the city currently enjoys without it? Well here are a few facts about our city and what makes us unique:-

• We’ve one of the oldest football clubs in the world: Liverpool Football Club
• It’s the 6th most visited city in the UK for international visitors
• Home to the only free port in the UK
• It’s home to the Beatles and the Matthew Street festival which attracts over 33,000 visitors each year
• Liverpool is one of the only cities with two cathedrals
• The Albert Dock has the largest group of Grade I listed buildings in the UK
• Liverpool is home to the oldest Chinese community in Europe
• The arch located at the gateway to China Town is also the largest, multiple-span arch of its kind outside of China

A final decision on whether Liverpool retains its “World Heritage” status will not be made till October, but the debate still continues. Do we really need this status to keep us firmly on the map or should we be focusing on developing our future so we can create another chapter in history? That’s how Sue see’s it!