Port Sunlight Residents and Conservation Society bid for World Monument Watch award

May 6 2009 by Carrie Catterall, Bromborough and Bebington News

PORT SUNLIGHT Residents and Conservation Society have made a bid to the World Monument Watch 2010, which if successful would raise the world-wide profile of the village.

The Arts and Crafts Garden Village created by William Hesketh and declared a conservation area in 1980, has joined nominations from around the world which will be short-listed to a final 100 by a panel of experts.

The society hopes to be granted UNESCO World Heritage Status, which was launched in 1996 and is issued every two years, to try to raise public awareness and thereby prevent further erosion of the fabric of the village.

The Watch nomination process also serves as a vehicle for requesting WMF assistance for select projects.

Since the program’s inception, 544 sites have been included on the seven Watches.

Nearly half the listed sites, representing 79 countries, have received WMF grants totalling $50 million.

Port Sunlight has 900 buildings Listed Grade II Special Architectural and Historic Interest (1965) and two areas of landscape, registered by English Heritage as being Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

Secretary of Port Sunlight’s Society, Claire Evans, said: “We’re extremely hopeful and confident that we will be accepted.

“It will be an exciting opportunity for us to receive world-wide status.

“Most properties are in need of restoration, requiring expensive skilled labour and materials, to ensure it meets with the conservation standards.”

The endorser for the bid, Councillor Steve Niblock. said: “We will find out if we have been accepted in October.

“If we were successful, the profile of the village would be raised which may then subsequently lead to further protection and grants.”