11th February 2009, 01:13 AM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by Noddy
http://www.york.gov.uk/leisure/Local_his...rch_sites/
Quote:quote:There are seven Areas of Archaeological Importance (AAI's) in York. These are listed in Appendix D of the City of York Local Plan.
If you want to carry out work in one of these areas that disturbs, tips material on or floods the ground, you must complete an operations notice and send it to us. You can download an operations notice on the right hand side of this page. We will validate the notice and send it to the York Archaeological Trust (YAT), who will respond to the notice in one of the following ways:
that it has no interest in the operation, or
that it wishes to observe and record the operations (an archaeological watching brief), or
that it wishes to excavate the site in advance of the operation taking place. In this case the YAT can claim a period of up to four months and two weeks to carry out an excavation. You will not be under any duty to pay for the costs of any esulting archaeological work.
It is an offence to start work within six weeks of submitting the operations notice or to start work within an area of archaeological importance without completing an operations notice. It is also an offence to use a metal detector within an AAI.
While this isn't directly related to contractor lists as such I've never understood how, in the era of PPG16, polluter pays and all that, York City Council can force developers to use one contractor in the centre of York. Does this happen in other areas of the country? Is it just that I'm misreading this? After the 4 months and 2 weeks can the developer choose their own contractor/consultant? And what happens with post-ex costs? Why does the council not act as curator in these areas, and instead pass it on to a contractor? Am I being overly cynical about the situation??!!
My understanding is that...
York is an Area of Archaeological Importance under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act of 1979. Under this act the Secretary of State has designated YAT as the investigating authority within the AAI. There are only five AAIs in the country - York plus Hereford, Canterbury, Chester and Exeter.
AAI designation offers additional protection to PPG16. The developer must inform the designated investigating authority of their intention to develop at least six weeks before the commencement of works by submitting an 'operations notice'.
The operations notice needs to be served before any works are undertaken that are intended to disturb the ground - including dumping or deliberate flooding and as such cover permitted development rights and pre-planning works as well as those which fall under PPG16
PPG15/16 is still applicable in York and the other AAI and the Local Planning Authority (or their archaeological advisors) will still determine/condition work which is subject to planning legislation in the same way as the rest of England.
Edit: shovelnomore - just noticed you must have replied at the same time as I was responding - apologies for repeating