A NEW and improved bid to turn Darwin’s home into a world heritage site has been drawn up by council bosses.

Charles Darwin used Down House and the surrounding land in Luxted Road, Downe, as inspiration for his work and a test bed for his ground-breaking ideas.

A bid to nominate the estate as a UNESCO world heritage site in 2006 was withdrawn by the Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport but a new, enhanced bid from Bromley Council will be submitted in January.

The new bid, labelled the Darwin’s Landscape Laboratory World Heritage Proposal, has been helped by the construction of the Bromley Environmental Education Centre in nearby High Elms Country Park.

A Sunday bus service and plans for improved access around Downe have also been included in the new proposals, while the council has applied for lottery cash to improve education and community facilities at the house.

Residents who fall within the new boundaries of the proposed world heritage site have been provided with more information about the bid as part of a public consultation which closes on October 27.

The plans are available online at darwinatdowne.co.uk, at local libraries, Down House and the Civic Centre in Bromley.

World heritage officer at Bromley Council Aimee Jones said: “It is important to us that, as much as possible, the plans reflect the views and opinions of local people.

“We believe that Darwin’s legacy has global and local significance and this is at the heart of the nomination.”

The world heritage list includes 878 properties which the World Heritage Committee considers to have outstanding universal value and in need of conservation.