Protecting Our Heritage

The main reason for the establishment of the World Heritage List was for protecting our heritage and to prevent the loss of sites of international significance. In England the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is responsible under the terms of an international treaty (the UNESCO World Heritage Convention 1972) for the conservation, management, enhancement and interpretation of World Heritage Sites. The Government’s responsibilities under the Convention are delegated, by and large, to the Derwent Valley Mills Partnership and its Management Plan sets out how it will meet those responsibilities. The management plan identifies what needs to be done to protect the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the World Heritage Site now and in the future, and how this will be achieved.

In the Planning section, you can read the Derwent Valley Mills Partnership’s responses to planning applications referred as a result of concerns raised by local planning authorities about the impacts on Outstanding Universal Value.

In the Boundaries section, you can download a pdf of the maps of the World Heritage Site, showing the boundaries, including the Buffer Zone.