A LOCAL HERITAGE EXPERT says Bridgetown’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site seems to have had the opposite effect than had been hoped.
Peter Stevens, president of the Barbados National Trust, noted that before inscription in 2011, there were a number of restoration projects of key historic buildings.
But in its wake, he said there had only been two restorations, while the island has lost four buildings in addition to a 19th century one being totally defaced.
“It kinda feels like everything has stopped,” he said. “We got inscribed and then what happened? Someone said, ‘Well, we have had an economic problem’ and yes, that was factored in, but it wasn’t like we had bucketloads of money before and we managed to do stuff and we didn’t need world heritage.” (HLE)
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