UNESCO has advised that Liverpool is stripped of its World Heritage title.
A vote on whether the city’s waterfront will be delisted is set to be decided at the United Nations heritage organisation’s annual conference next month.
Monday’s long-awaited report from UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee recommended that Liverpool loses the status it was awarded in 2004.
The committee cited the evolution of Peel’s Liverpool Waters redevelopment project as a decisive factor in their decision to make the controversial ruling.
They also raised the role which Everton’s planned stadium move to the city’s disused north docks as part of the £5 billion transformation of the local area.
Earlier this year, the Blues received full approval on their vision to relocate from Goodison Park to a new, purpose-built venue at Bramley-Moore Dock.
But UNESCO condemned Liverpool for failing to act on its advice on how the development of skyscrapers would impact on the city’s World Heritage status.
“The committee considered that the stated inability of the state party to control further developments clearly reflects inadequate governance systems and planning mechanisms that undermine protection and management and therefore, fail to sustain the [outstanding universal value] of the property,” read the report.
It later added: “(The committee) regrets that the process for the implementation of the Liverpool Waters project and other large-scale infrastructure projects in the waterfront and northern dock area of the property and its buffer zone has resulted in serious deterioration and irreversible loss of attributes.”
Leading figures across the city, who lobbied for UNESCO to reconsider its stance on the Heritage award, met the recommendation with disappointment.
Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor for the Liverpool City Region, said: “The Liverpool City Region is a place with a rich and storied history.
“We are proud of our history and do not shy away from it. But our heritage is also a vital part of our regeneration.
“It is therefore deeply disappointing that this recommendation to remove Liverpool’s World Heritage status has been made today, ahead of the meeting of the world heritage committee meeting next month.
“Many of the sites mentioned by UNESCO are in communities sorely in need of investment.
“Places like Liverpool should not be faced with the binary choice between maintaining heritage status or regenerating left behind communities – and the wealth of jobs and opportunities that come with it.”
The Mayor of Liverpool, Joanne Anderson, confirmed plans to request for UNESCO’s committee ‘to defer and review our case over the next 12 months.’
A final decision on Liverpool’s status as a World Heritage site will be taken by the UN’s Committee when it meets in Fuzhou, China from July 16-31.