Birkenhead Park gets Government backing for world heritage status

Graham Arnold from the Friends of Birkenhead Park is encouraged by the news.

The world's first publicly-funded park, in Birkenhead, has received Government backing to win world heritage status.

Birkenhead Park was opened in 1847 and became the blueprint for New York's Central Park and other green spaces in urban areas worldwide.

Officials at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have announced a list of seven locations across the country which could be in the running to be granted the status.

Graham Arnold, a retired conservation officer for Wirral who now volunteers in the park, said: "Personally, it's fantastic but it is even more fantastic for Birkenhead."

It is one of several historic sites, nationwide, getting Government backing to win the prestigious status.

Birkenhead's vast green space joins York city centre and an iron age settlement in Scotland, among others, on what the DCMS calls its "Tentative List" to put forward to UNESCO.

The United Nation's heritage site system offers the opportunity for cultural and natural sites to gain international recognition and promote themselves on a global stage.

Mr Arnold, chairman of the Friends of Birkenhead Park, hopes the space will now gain national and international recognition.

"Central Park is the one that gets all the plaudits. It's really great that it's come back to Birkenhead.

"The possibility of it in fulness of time being inscribed as a World Heritage Site, that's the great goal."

The park now attracts more than million visitors each year.

The park was, at the time it opened, a pioneering project to bring greenery to urban environments.

It took five years to build and now attracts more than million visitors each year.

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