How can adequate development planning occur when some important commercial sites are neither listed in HERs, OASIS or any other publicly accessible record?
This is no trivial matter - i have personal knowledge of at least 4 non-trivial sites, each with some 'difficulties' in initially planning approval, one nearly 10 years old, excavated under full commercial contracts and planning legislation, for which there is no Report, no deposited Archive, no digital listing, and (rather shockingly) no County Council listing or HER entry.
A 'Desk-Based' survey for the areas would suggest no known archaeology for any subsequent development. Sure, if the friendly Mounty remembers the work, and happens to have time to speak to you, they might remember that some work was done, and perhaps even the most broad archaeological narrative. However this is utterly sub-standard for planning commercial risk, archaeological potential, and in PREPARING ADEQUATE METHODS for heritage mitigation. We need plans. We need assemblages. We need dates. WE NEED THE DETAILS.
Even when a Mounty might have provided this kind of input, there is no guarantee they will, for a variety of reasons (eg generally not wanting to get involved with problems, overworked/under-funded, simple Council power games etc).
In at least one other case, the lack of an updated HER record meant that a 'significant' site was discovered in an area which had been judged 'low significance', but would have been considered 'high' had the previous adjacent excavation (with no public record) had been factored in. The Mounty said nothing. I have personal experience of exactly the same - different County/Company/Site, but same old story...
I am very much first-in-line to defend our Public Services and County Council colleagues, and i put the blame firmly in the hands of the Commercial sector, who still seem to think that County Councils, Museums, and Public Archives will just clean up their mess, essentially for free!
But, this is just not good enough. The Commercial sector will do nothing unless the CCs get much MUCH tougher...i don't see much prospect of that, so what do we do ?
ps: please please please do not mention the Charted Institute of FA...that really will not help us, not unless most of the executive body is severely shaken up...at every turn where the Institute of FA should have helped, it has proved a closed door, dead-end, and total waste of ones time + ink.
This is no trivial matter - i have personal knowledge of at least 4 non-trivial sites, each with some 'difficulties' in initially planning approval, one nearly 10 years old, excavated under full commercial contracts and planning legislation, for which there is no Report, no deposited Archive, no digital listing, and (rather shockingly) no County Council listing or HER entry.
A 'Desk-Based' survey for the areas would suggest no known archaeology for any subsequent development. Sure, if the friendly Mounty remembers the work, and happens to have time to speak to you, they might remember that some work was done, and perhaps even the most broad archaeological narrative. However this is utterly sub-standard for planning commercial risk, archaeological potential, and in PREPARING ADEQUATE METHODS for heritage mitigation. We need plans. We need assemblages. We need dates. WE NEED THE DETAILS.
Even when a Mounty might have provided this kind of input, there is no guarantee they will, for a variety of reasons (eg generally not wanting to get involved with problems, overworked/under-funded, simple Council power games etc).
In at least one other case, the lack of an updated HER record meant that a 'significant' site was discovered in an area which had been judged 'low significance', but would have been considered 'high' had the previous adjacent excavation (with no public record) had been factored in. The Mounty said nothing. I have personal experience of exactly the same - different County/Company/Site, but same old story...
I am very much first-in-line to defend our Public Services and County Council colleagues, and i put the blame firmly in the hands of the Commercial sector, who still seem to think that County Councils, Museums, and Public Archives will just clean up their mess, essentially for free!
But, this is just not good enough. The Commercial sector will do nothing unless the CCs get much MUCH tougher...i don't see much prospect of that, so what do we do ?
ps: please please please do not mention the Charted Institute of FA...that really will not help us, not unless most of the executive body is severely shaken up...at every turn where the Institute of FA should have helped, it has proved a closed door, dead-end, and total waste of ones time + ink.
