The public can now have their say on the Forth Bridge’s bid to join the Taj Mahal and Great Pyramids as a World Heritage site.
The Forth Bridges Forum which includes a number of local and national organisations yesterday launched a 12-week consultation in support of the iconic railway bridge’s nomination for the Unesco World Heritage list.
The consultation will seek views on the benefits a successful bid could have for the local area, including for issues such as boosting tourism and education.
It will also help develop the bridge’s world heritage management plan, essential for any site in its management and promotion.
The UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport announced last year that the 19th century Victorian landmark would be the first site from the revised UK list to be put forward to Unesco for nomination.
Since then work, including talking to local people, has been carried out to prepare for this consultation and the next stages of the process.
Information gathered over the coming weeks will contribute to the final document, due to be submitted to Unesco early next year. Consideration for world heritage site inscription will be taking place in 2015.
Launching the consultation, Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “The Forth Bridge is an iconic and enduring symbol of Scotland’s Victorian engineering ingenuity at its very best.
“It truly is deserving of world heritage site status. As a new industrial heritage site, it would join our five existing Scottish world heritage sites in achieving this international recognition.
“Securing this status would be an enormous honour and source of pride, not only for the communities of North and South Queensferry but for Scotland as a whole.
“The designation will deliver numerous benefits and a key aspect of the consultation will be to consider how these would benefit the bridge’s local communities to ensure the world heritage site would be sustainable.
“We want to submit the strongest possible bid to Unesco and I would urge the communities on either side of the Forth Bridge and all interested parties to participate to make sure we achieve this ambition in 2015.”
The nomination is being overseen by the Forth Bridge World Heritage steering group of the Forth Bridges Forum.
This includes Network Rail, as owners of the bridge, Transport Scotland, Historic Scotland, Fife Council, City of Edinburgh Council, Queensferry and District Community Council, Queensferry Ambition, North Queensferry Community Council, North Queensferry Heritage Trust, FETA and VisitScotland.
Network Rail route managing director David Simpson added: “We’re pleased to give this nomination our full backing.
“The Forth Bridge is a unique, world-class structure and it deserves to be recognised as a high point of human ambition and achievement. We consider ourselves as proud custodians of the bridge and look forward to hearing the feedback from the consultation.”
All the consultation documents, instructions and guidance are available on the nomination’s website at www.forthbridgeworldheritage.com.
There will also be a number of community consultation events organised by Fife Council and City of Edinburgh Council, who are on either side of the bridge, during the 12-week period.
The Forth Bridge World Heritage Consultation will close on Sunday August 11.