26th March 2012, 10:02 PM
gonetopot Wrote:Cambs have in recent times refused to sign off the condition on projects until publication reports have been produced. Obviously building work may have gone ahead, but the legal condition remains.
In my experience it is rarely, if ever, possible to keep a condition 'undischarged' until the full publication report has been finished - although in an ideal world this would be great.
The pace of the building trade compared with archaeological post-ex means that invariably the development will be completed and ready to sell a long-time before the publication is ready. Selling developments with outstanding planning conditions is pretty much a no-no.
Planning officers are in my experience are often reluctant to keep archaeological conditions in place once development is underway and would certainly want to see the condition discharged before houses are released to market. Most people on here seem to forget that curators only advise planning officers - the ultimate decision as to whether to discharge or not lies with the LPA. Most LPAs charge for discharging planning conditions - around ?85 a pop so this is a useful income generator for them.
Our approach is to insist on a written undertaking from the developer and archaeological contractor to complete the full post-excavation and publication programme as well as written confirmation that the funding to undertake this work has been secured and 'ring-fenced'. The condition is then discharged on this basis and can only be considered to have been fully complied with once the full programme is finished.