Starting Afresh

[Cautionary Tale]

quote:Originally posted by archae_logical

I'd like to see the system changed so the work was done by an independent archaeological company of some kind, under the direction/working for the county mounty but paid for by the developer so that anything of national importance found would be reported immediately to the appropriate person not hidden in paperwork until it was too late to preserve in-situ if necessary. This way no-one could say the information was not given to them in time to follow PPG16 guidelines.

Well, as I understand it, that is what used to happen before commercial units were around. Each region/city/county had its archaeological unit, there was even the fabled CAU (wasn't there?). They did work under the direction of the local authority archaeologist, but all that changed with PPG16. I believe that PPG16 is probably a good basis because it can oblige developers to give allowances to archaeology, the times when sites slip through the cracks are down to multiple applications (seen it many times) and human error }