Broads Authority mulls World Heritage bid

The status would put the area on a par with the Pyramids, Machu Picchu, Victoria Falls and the Great Barrier Reef.

The decision to bid for recognition of the Broads as a cultural landscape under the World Heritage Convention, was first mooted in 2005/6, but was put on hold to await government guidance.

Broads Authority members will meet to discuss whether the Authority should go ahead with its bid this Friday (14th).

Broads Authority chief executive John Packman said: "The Broads is a very special area and we believe merits this international recognition.

"Our preliminary view suggests that the Broads would meet the UK criteria in three of the ten categories under which sites can be nominated. As a member of the UK’s family of National Parks we are some distance there already."

There are 28 World Heritage Sites in the UK including Durham Cathedral and Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, Ironbridge Gorge, Stonehenge, Blenheim Palace, the City of Bath, Tower of London, Palace of Westminister, Dorset and East Devon Coast, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape.