19th April 2010, 04:22 PM
Steven Wrote:Hi
Approved Contractors Lists are common fact of life for Tree Surgeons and can be found on many district council wbsites. As for the IFA deciding lists, isn't it better that an officer acting on behalf of elected officials (elected by local pople) produces a list rather than an unaccounatble organisation? After all if somebody had a problem with a local list they can write to the elected member to comlain, but if they were not a member of the IFA they would have no recourse.
Local planning authorities are indepandant governing bodies, ran by elected memebrs on behalf of local people, so in terms of accountability, local knowledge and understanding of local economics I would argue that LPAs have a legitimate right to produce a list if they believe it to be in the best interest of local people (and by extension local people's archaeological heritage).
Far from being a bar to self-employment, local lists could be the way smaller films are offered smaller projects within their local area. If you think about it leaving it up to the yellow pages route means whoever has the largest advertising budget gets the most jobs!
Interesting about the tree surgeons, does approved mean those lists are similar to those for archaeologists? Do issues regarding things that have protection (tree, rare species) mean that relevant lists are more strict?
I'm not entirely sure under what circumstances anyone would bother to complain to their democratically elected representative. Most likely that they have had to pay for an archaeologist in the first place. Archaeologists are more likely to want to complain but might feel unable to do so for fear of upsetting curators they have to deal with on a regular basis. A list compiled by the IFA could just as easily be commented on, perhaps more easily in such circumstances.
Are the various lists compiled with all the concerns about local knowledge, economics and people that you mention? They do potentially act as a bar to smaller firms and the self-employed in the ways outlined at the beginning of this thread - a basic advert in the Yellow Pages actually costs nothing!