How should British Archaeology be run

[kevin wooldridge]

But once upon a time we made do without curators.....planning authorities had access to their own little in-house archaeology unit at county or city or town or borough level. Those archaeologists told the planners what sites needed conditions and which didn't and the planners added the condition to get the sites dug. Seemed to work pretty well...and surprisingly despite the claims of the Thatcherites that such arrangements were an abuse of trust or competition, I don't recall a single occasion where archaeologists sat on their arses and pulled in cash for doing damn-all or near next to damn-all. Which is not something you can claim for the current rash of so called commercial archaeologists...

So if that is what Uo1 was suggesting we return to...I'm fully in favour. (I'd be happy of course for most of the currently employed curators to find positions in the county or city or town or borough units that would replace their present role...)
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