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+--- Thread: Archaeology services cut at Gloucestershire County Council (/showthread.php?tid=4443)
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Archaeology services cut at Gloucestershire County Council - BAJR - 9th May 2012
Ten people are set to lose their jobs in archaeology services at Gloucestershire County Council.
The council said the changes would leave a core team of five, as field work would be "wound down" over the next two years.
Compulsory redundancies would be avoided "where we can", the council said.
Mike Heyworth, the director of the Council for British Archaeology, said he was disappointed with the decision.
Under the changes, the preservation, recording and consideration of archaeology in developments would be retained.
The council's Alan Bently said: "We carry out field work that other people pay for.
Read more::> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-17994117
we first reported this back in February. http://www.bajrfed.co.uk/showthread.php?5233-Archaeology-cuts-at-Gloucestershire-County-Council-another-ones-bites-the-dust
Archaeology services cut at Gloucestershire County Council - Unitof1 - 9th May 2012
Sorry to hear that a council run unit is not able to compete in the commercial world. This probably the problem of having elected management as well as tiers of civil service and public service budget controlers in charge who just cant possibly understand what archaeology requires. I can only hope that they can find work with the other main council unit in the area. Its probably incompertent council management who has not thought of trying to get them jobs there or maybe the other council unit has its reasons. I dont know who got this recent job for an Archaeologist at Gloucestershire http://www.lgjobs.com/jobs/archaeologist-168. Presumably the advert meant Advisor. You can only hope it was for one of the ten people who have now lost their job. The news item seems to imply that a lot of these ten will be natural wastage and it does appear that there will be five left. What are they going to do? Will they be taking on new fieldwork? Good luck to everybody in Gloucestershire.
Archaeology services cut at Gloucestershire County Council - beamo - 9th May 2012
I agree with Unit that this is a great shame - although perhaps the loss of jobs in the county field unit will safeguard jobs in the county advisory service at Gloucestershire (or maybe I have misread the article).
Unit - the advertised post that you referred to was for the City of Gloucester - this is a separate planning unit to the county (i.e. a unitary authority) with a separate HER etc.
Beamo
Archaeology services cut at Gloucestershire County Council - Unitof1 - 9th May 2012
sorry beamo i presumed that the city advisor HER job was commitant with the county council HER. Not my area. So theres a county /district advisor and a city advisor. That must cost a bit?
Archaeology services cut at Gloucestershire County Council - Steve H - 9th May 2012
I worked for the Gloucester County Council field unit a few years ago and thought they were good people who delivered a quality service and probably broke even. They had some good ideas, like telling the staff the profit margins achieved on their projects. They were very small though. When I was there there were only 4 people regularly doing field work.
Some other projects they were doing, like Jon Hoyles LIDAR in the Forest of Dean were quite cutting edge.
It will be a pity to see them go.
Archaeology services cut at Gloucestershire County Council - Unitof1 - 9th May 2012
It must be difficult to work out what a profit margin should be in a council unit
Archaeology services cut at Gloucestershire County Council - rocklobster - 9th May 2012
Yes the City Council is separate but luckily that's gone to a very worthy guy from the County Council. Unfortunately the advisory side will still need to reduce costs so people will still have to leave. Some people (on the projects side) have already left through to go to other jobs, so hopefully the number potentially made redundant is now a lot smaller. It is a great shame; not just for the people but for they work they did/do. Like the NMP programme (funded by English Heritage), which will not necessarily be taken up by the commercial units. The one positive aspect is that the projects are being allowed to wind down, rather than being stopped abruptly.
Archaeology services cut at Gloucestershire County Council - Unitof1 - 9th May 2012
Its good that the council and the city get on. This seems to be the structure of archaeology in gloucestershire
http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/archaeology which does not seem to suggest that they like to claim doing any archaeology or things like the NMP. I am not sure that there is much profit in undertaking an NMP or what you do with somebody after its compleated. Steve H suggested that only about four people did field archaeology, hopefully they will be able to get other archaeological work.
Archaeology services cut at Gloucestershire County Council - Marcus Brody - 9th May 2012
Unitof1 Wrote:Its good that the council and the city get on....I am not sure that there is much profit in undertaking an NMP or what you do with somebody after its compleated. Steve H suggested that only about four people did field archaeology, hopefully they will be able to get other archaeological work.
These posts appear to display a positive attitude to Council archaeologists, and genuine concern about people potentially losing their jobs. Who are you, and what have you done with Unitof1?:face-approve:
Archaeology services cut at Gloucestershire County Council - rocklobster - 10th May 2012
From the council's point of view, these projects probably don't make a profit, but the NMP project workers are not based in GCC they are based in English Heritage, Swindon, therefore some profit comes from overheads. Obviously the projects have to come in on time to gain profit. But that's just talking merely about financial gains. The information that NMP provides to HER's and therefore the public and developers etc is so useful.
Aha Unitof1 you have just found the Council's recently revamped webpages which have removed all knowledge about any of the council's projects and outreach info. It's now all very sterile!