5th January 2011, 06:56 PM
Kevin,
I?d have to take issue with every one of your assertions here.
My local county field unit certainly was bigger earlier this year than it was in ?97 (about twice the size actually), and the HER and curatorial sections are bigger too, with the addition of assistants, agri-environmental archaeologists and the like. Doesn?t seem like much a contraction going on there, though to be fair some of the curatorial people are paid through funding from various bodies and not directly from local government. A similar picture from neighbouring counties too I?m afraid, with one perhaps the same size as they were 13 years ago.
I would suggest that, for the most part, any contraction of council field units prior to May was as a result of the recession, and not any lack of government expenditure. I also suspect that such reductions since the recession has possibly been ameliorated by making up project-money shortfalls here and there with public money.
Yes, I?d agree that the general onus in the profession has been one of a drift towards the operation of more private sector companies. A good thing. Just a shame there are still so many anachronistic council-subsidised field units out there.
?garbage about invented posts that happen to have 'co-ordinator' tacked on the end of the job-title? ? errr, where have you been since ?97?
For the record I?m not a supporter of government intervention and selective support in the private sector. Private companies should survive on their own merits. Government intervention was necessary for the banking industry to avert disaster, but that should be, and is, the rare occasion when government has to step in to avert a calamity.
Daily Mail? ? nah, lefty rag ;-)
I?d have to take issue with every one of your assertions here.
My local county field unit certainly was bigger earlier this year than it was in ?97 (about twice the size actually), and the HER and curatorial sections are bigger too, with the addition of assistants, agri-environmental archaeologists and the like. Doesn?t seem like much a contraction going on there, though to be fair some of the curatorial people are paid through funding from various bodies and not directly from local government. A similar picture from neighbouring counties too I?m afraid, with one perhaps the same size as they were 13 years ago.
I would suggest that, for the most part, any contraction of council field units prior to May was as a result of the recession, and not any lack of government expenditure. I also suspect that such reductions since the recession has possibly been ameliorated by making up project-money shortfalls here and there with public money.
Yes, I?d agree that the general onus in the profession has been one of a drift towards the operation of more private sector companies. A good thing. Just a shame there are still so many anachronistic council-subsidised field units out there.
?garbage about invented posts that happen to have 'co-ordinator' tacked on the end of the job-title? ? errr, where have you been since ?97?
For the record I?m not a supporter of government intervention and selective support in the private sector. Private companies should survive on their own merits. Government intervention was necessary for the banking industry to avert disaster, but that should be, and is, the rare occasion when government has to step in to avert a calamity.
Daily Mail? ? nah, lefty rag ;-)