18th August 2013, 08:07 PM
Is that a fine of £1000? The post-ex budget is surely going to be much, much more than that? It's hardly a deterrent, and if I was a hard-nosed business woman rather than an archaeologist I'd take the prosecution and fine as it's cheaper than discharging the condition! (Even though it's hardly ethical!) Great news that a notice has been issued but it simply doesn't sound like it has any real possibility of enforcement, and what message does it send out about archaeological planning conditions?
I'm fascinated though that it's the developer that has legal liability here as I would have thought part of the contract with the archaeological contractor would have been the production of a report, and I would have assumed in that case they would have been blaming the archaeological sub-contractor and passing on legal liability? I do know that it's not uncommon for post-ex budgets to have separate tendering etc. Lots of questions from the archaeological side of things as the archive, finds (inc skeles) etc must be in storage somewhere? As the human remains came from a known Christian burial context, I thought most licenses from the Ministry of Justice now stipulated where the remains needed to be re-interred and gave a time frame? However. even if we aren't paid huge wages, we're still professionals and can't do the work for free if there's no contract.... so what do you do here as a contractor? Especially if they take the fine?
I'm fascinated though that it's the developer that has legal liability here as I would have thought part of the contract with the archaeological contractor would have been the production of a report, and I would have assumed in that case they would have been blaming the archaeological sub-contractor and passing on legal liability? I do know that it's not uncommon for post-ex budgets to have separate tendering etc. Lots of questions from the archaeological side of things as the archive, finds (inc skeles) etc must be in storage somewhere? As the human remains came from a known Christian burial context, I thought most licenses from the Ministry of Justice now stipulated where the remains needed to be re-interred and gave a time frame? However. even if we aren't paid huge wages, we're still professionals and can't do the work for free if there's no contract.... so what do you do here as a contractor? Especially if they take the fine?