20th January 2006, 03:12 PM
Counties vs Unitaries?. It really depends on where you are. The county structure has its benefits in certain circumstances. In my (admittedly limited) experience most district / unitary authorities are only willing to stump up the cash for one full time professional archaeologist (if that). It means they can put a tick the box that says the LPA shows commitment to their UDP policies on the historic environment. You tend to get an all-singing-all-dancing unitary authority archaeologist who has to cover development control, utilities, agri-environment schemes, updating/enhancing the SMR, writing service policy? the list goes on.
County teams allow the pooling of resources ? and division of labour. For example you may have in your county four LPAs - perhaps one major urban centre and three districts of a less-urban nature inter-dispersed with nice bits of green belt. Development pressure in the former is likely to be higher and the archaeology more complex (depending). If you have four archaeologists working centrally, as opposed to one in each district LPA, resources can be allocated where they are needed ? maybe 1.5 people covering busier urban centres, 0.5 people doing agri-environment and utilities, 1 for the ?quieter? districts and 1 for the SMR. Also you only need one set of service policy documents / briefs etc. (enhances joined-up thinking and consistency of approach I think), one computer system etc. Of course this all falls down in cases where your ?county? covers 2 or even 3 large urban centres with masses of brownfield / urban fringe development ? In these cases you really do need two people covering what is still, in many areas, a job being done by one person.
County teams allow the pooling of resources ? and division of labour. For example you may have in your county four LPAs - perhaps one major urban centre and three districts of a less-urban nature inter-dispersed with nice bits of green belt. Development pressure in the former is likely to be higher and the archaeology more complex (depending). If you have four archaeologists working centrally, as opposed to one in each district LPA, resources can be allocated where they are needed ? maybe 1.5 people covering busier urban centres, 0.5 people doing agri-environment and utilities, 1 for the ?quieter? districts and 1 for the SMR. Also you only need one set of service policy documents / briefs etc. (enhances joined-up thinking and consistency of approach I think), one computer system etc. Of course this all falls down in cases where your ?county? covers 2 or even 3 large urban centres with masses of brownfield / urban fringe development ? In these cases you really do need two people covering what is still, in many areas, a job being done by one person.