NRegan

Last updated at 00:00, Friday, 23 November 2007

PLANS to transform the Lake District into a world heritage site are a step closer.

Michael Clarke, 40, has been appointed project director to lead the Lake District’s bid to join international sites like the Taj Mahal and Grand Canyon.

Mr Clarke is based at the Lake District National Park Authority’s offices in Kendal and plans a two-month tour of towns and villages next year with an exhibition to explain what the status is likely to mean.

Mr Clarke worked for Rural Regeneration Cumbria, which later became Cumbria Vision, until last February.

This is not the first time the Lake District has been put forward as a potential World Heritage Status candidate.

Back in the 1980s, when the government asked people to nominate sites, it was decided that the Lake District did not fit Unesco criteria of that time.

The idea was reawakened in 2000 and a partnership involving district and county councils and organisations have been discussing it since then.

Documentation should be handed to the government by November 2009, although the bid might not go forward until 2011.

Mr Clarke said: “The benefits are subtle and long-term. In an ever-more competitive market anything extra in your armoury is worth having and this will be a prestige badge for the area.

“It will also be a boost to the pride of Cumbria.”

First published at 18:10, Thursday, 24 January 2008
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk