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Skyscrapers to be banned in Britain's world heritage sites

Developers seeking to build skyscrapers in Britain's world heritage sites will be banned under proposals published yesterday in the Government's long-awaited White Paper on heritage protection.

The document gives Britain's 27 world heritage sites the same protection as national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty, and proposes buffer zones around them. Measures enacted have the potential to thwart high-rise building plans supported by the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, and other development across the country.

The heritage sites had little previous protection, and the UN heritage body Unesco has voiced fears for those in Edinburgh, London and Oxford. The Government wants to make it easier for projects on such sites to be "called in" to inquiries.

Heritage organisations offered a lukewarm response, accusing the Government of placing some of Britain's most precious buildings at risk by failing to guarantee how they were to be funded.
Read entire article at Independent