The city has become the site of a battle between preservation and private property
When Unesco decided last week to strip Liverpool of its world heritage status, its action was widely seen as a conflict between a remote bureaucracy and the city’s valiant efforts to regenerate its postindustrial zones. “Liverpool’s waterfront has flourished without Unesco’s support and will do so again,” wrote the Liverpool Echo’s head of sport, David Prentice, and he spoke for many.
The fact that a proposed new stadium for Everton is a catalyst for Unesco’s ire gives force to this narrative. On the one hand, the people’s game – or the “people’s club” as Everton like to call themselves – on the other, faceless functionaries meeting in a faraway country. In Fuzhou, China, to be precise, where the 44th session of the world heritage committee decided the city’s fate in a secret ballot. “Unesco are as out of touch with Merseyside geographically as they are spiritually,” Prentice wrote.
