Should an archaeologist recommend a development in the planning application comments

[Marc Berger]

I am not sure what standard evaluation strategies are not suitable. Normally in an evaluation you look for all and everything. Maybe I waste a lot of time looking for paleo/meso but I am pretty certain that I would look for it in any evaluation. Yes lots of things get missed in the spoil heap especially from machining. Normally I like to put a metal detector over the spoil which also gives you a chance to pick up any other residual material. Why didn't the local historian not take the finds to the archaeologist? Sounds a bit odd that the archaeologists did not back fill the trenches.

the suggestion that DBAs/Heritage Statements could be eschewed so long as an eval is done is not sensible.-I think that it is more sensible than doing DBAs/Heritage Statements and coming away without doing any site evaluation. The suggestion in this case is that the -Mesolithic site was on the HER, it 'slipped through the net' and wasn't considered when designing the evaluation methodology- well that could as easily if more so have happened in the DBAs/Heritage Statements particularly if the DBAs/Heritage Statements were done by people who have no responsibility in trying to do a good evaluation. In the situation described it still sounds like some archaeology is going on using tangible objects even if that were allegedly found in the spoil heap which wouldn't have happened if the trenches had not been opened.