28th October 2011, 12:37 PM
P Prentice Wrote:this is the age of back-covering - local authorities will be only too pleased to utilise any mechanism they can to show best practice.
It's also an age that's totally paranoid about legal action and the threat of being sued. While the Council archaeologist may wish to restrict work to RAOs, the legal department is likely to be more concerned about the possibility of such a move involving the Council in lawsuits over restraint of trade and restriction of the right in a free market for developers to appoint the contractor of their choice. When faced with a choice between enforcing a standard to make a point that the bulk of the Council probably doesn't care much about, and defending this in a potentially-costly court case, I'd expect most to choose the path of least resistance.
You know Marcus. He once got lost in his own museum