Do we really need lectures from Unesco on our heritage?

You could describe the UK planning system as a giant whispering gallery where landowners, pressure groups and developers all seek to bend policy their way. One such group is Unesco, an organisation with an inveterate habit of telling the British administration what to do about particular places in Britain and threatening consequences if it is disobeyed. You may not have heard a great deal about it’s behaviour: but recent events show that you should take notice of it.

Under an obscure convention of 1972, the World Heritage Convention, Unesco nominates a number of world heritage sites from lists submitted by governments. There are currently about 1,000 of these; 28 are in the UK. Listing gives no status, but states pay a subscription and have a technical right to ask for international help in looking after such sites.

Last week the importance of this regime came to a head. The courts temporarily stymied government plans to bury underground the main road passing a few hundred yards south of Stonehenge.