After responding to various important issues on the Rec Debate, for example upsetting his friends Phil Inman and Worthy Gilson, Mr Drew finishes his letter with the wholly pompous statement, "I conclude that the possible threat to our World Heritage status - which would be caused if we redevelop the Rec - proves that rugby is not an asset to our prestigious World Heritage title." 

Where the hell does he get this idea from?

According to Wikipedia a World Heritage site is somewhere "of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of mankind." There is no doubt that a City with the only natural hot springs in the UK which then encouraged the Romans and Georgians to build historic and beautiful structures meets the above criteria. However, if my memory serves me right, when Bath was inducted in to the World Heritage Hall of Fame didn't the City also have on display the glories of:

• Avon Street car park
• Gas holders on the Upper Bristol Road
• the whole of the dilapidated Western Riverside project
• Southgate and the bus station
• King Edward's Junior School in Broad Street
• the sluice gate below Pulteney Bridge

and a whole host of other derelict or semi-derelict areas within a fifteen minute walk of the centre.

So what makes the development of The Rec, currently consisting of a series of embarrassingly designed(sic) sheds, so awful and likely to jeopardise the World Heritage status of Bath? The simple answer is probably nothing and I'm sure the FOTR actually know this.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. So what actually are we trying to preserve in Bath? Do we want the City to become a museum which is only capable of celebrating certain more palatable aspects of the past thus ensuring current and future residents lives are shackled by their history or should it be developed as a vibrant and wealthy location which provides protection for its internationally renowned past but also supports the needs of those people who live in, work in and visit the City now and in the future?

The UNESCO criteria upon which the City was originally granted its World Heritage status is as follows:

• to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius;
• to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design;
• to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history.

Do any of these statements actually say "Keep the City in mothballs for the next 500 years? No, of course not and all of these statements refer as much to the development of the people of Bath as they do to the structures of Bath.

I would argue, although unlike Mr Drew I'm not sufficiently pompous to "conclude", that Bath Rugby has for some 150 years played a significant part in the cultural development of the City of Bath and fits neatly in to criteria so important to retaining World Heritage status.

As a post script to this article, whilst in Jersey this week-end I happened to wear, on three of the four days of my visit, polo shirts bearing the Bath Rugby crest. Each day these crests brought complete strangers to me wishing to chat about Bath Rugby. Even the security guard to whom I showed my boarding pass at Jersey Airport made a comment that when visiting England he always tries to include a game at The Rec (and he is Portuguese!).

The likes of Drew, Inman and Gilson need to understand that Bath Rugby has created a culture of its own that is important to many people around the world but perhaps more importantly, it's important to the City of Bath.

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