Preserving Walloon Heritage: Controversy Surrounding UNESCO Protection Zones

2024-03-01 11:22:00

Minister Valérie De Bue (MR) announced it at the start of the week: the Tournai cathedral and seven Walloon belfries included on the list established by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites will ultimately be endowed with a protection zone. protection. The Mons building is concerned… Which does not please the Mons political authorities!

In her communication, the minister underlines that “the proposed perimeters were determined by the Walloon Heritage Agency (AWaP) taking into account the views towards and from the listed monuments” and considers that “by clarifying the rules and establishing a better considered protection perimeter, we offer the towns and municipalities concerned the possibility of developing activities necessary for local life while preserving, in a fair balance, the historical and visual integrity of the Heritage.”

An analysis that Maxime Pourtois (PS), alderman in charge of town planning, does not share. “In principle, no city will oppose the preservation of heritage. We did not wait for the minister to provide guidelines,” he explains. “What is really regrettable is that the minister comes with such a proposal at the end of her mandate, without prior consultation with the cities and towns.”

To date, in fact, no contact has been made between the minister’s office and the authorities who will nevertheless be directly concerned since they are forced to respect new regulations. “With her project, the minister is weakening municipal autonomy and will make any development project in the city center more difficult, whether good or not. We add constraint to constraint and thus do not facilitate the development of city centers, which is a real challenge for tomorrow.”

At this stage, as no text has yet been adopted, it is difficult to specify examples of projects which might be refused tomorrow on the basis of these new provisions. But for Maxime Pourtois, “any investor permit application will be more complex since there will be more administrative constraints, more opinions required and ultimately more costs and longer deadlines. The consequence is that the rehabilitation of certain abandoned buildings in the city center will perhaps no longer be considered by investors.”

In short, in Mons, we do not view the minister’s position favorably. “As the municipalities were not involved in the process, we are still in the dark as to its implementation. Like any other citizen, we will learn the minister’s wishes in a more concrete way as part of the public inquiry which will soon be launched. The timing seems bad to us, as does the way of doing things.”

Once the public inquiry concerning the establishment of these protection zones has been launched and opinions requested, the Walloon Heritage Agency (AWaP) will present a summary of these consultations, adapt the file if necessary and propose the orders for signature. the Minister of Heritage.

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