28th January 2013, 09:47 PM
This is just one aspect of the possible reorganisation of the historic environment sector at all levels currently being mooted, with alarmingly short timeframes for discussion and change. A single national historic environment body or trust is one of the options. Personally, I don't think a RCAHMW/Cadw merger would necessarily be such a bad thing, but too much amalgamation is not wise. Not only in terms of the three Rs (redundancies, resources and research) but crucially, in effectiveness. Happily, Cadw are not part of the new Single Environment Body for Wales, which merges Environment Agency, Forestry Commission and CCW, to streamline, simplify, and in theory, speed up schemes and programmes and developments, by issuing only a single response to each proposal. Ain't gonna happen. Bigger organisation, more soup for messages to be lost in; three agencies with conflicting interests, gonna be a case of who shouts loudest. Reckon it's bye-bye to the furries and pretty flowers in a futile battle against flooding, and a uniform landscape of coniferous green.