Farron comments on world heritage announcement
The Lake District has been recommended to go forward as the UK's next World Heritage nomination in 2016. South Lakes MP Tim Farron commented that the news is a deserved recognition of the area's world class landscape.
The Culture Minister Ed Vaizey announced the decision today. Along with the Lake District, 5 other sites came forward to be considered for nomination. These were Chatham Dockyard and its Defences, the Flow County, Jodrell Bank Observatory, the Zenith of Iron Age Shetland, and the Twin Monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow. The nomination of The Lake District in 2016 by the Independent Expert Group will follow bids already invited from the ForthBridge near Edinburgh in 2014, and Gorham's Cave Complex in Gibraltar in 2015.
Tim said: "I hope that we can work to build a strategy around this news to attract even more tourists to our area. The landscapes we see on a daily basis are the jewel in the British tourist industry's crown.
"But we must ensure that the new status doesn't risk freezing in aspic our vibrant communities. We need a study to be done on the impact of this status on house prices, business development, planning decisions and our farming industry. I don't want any accolade - however impressive - to impact detrimentally on local people. "
Once the site's nomination has been submitted, it will undergo a demanding process of scrutiny and evaluation by UNESCO and its advisory body, the International Council on Monuments and Sites. UNESCO's World Heritage Committee is expected to take the final decision on the Lake District in June 2017.