Conflicts of Interest in commercial archaeology

[BAJR Host]

Such a shame that it is not available online... access to Information... I can check OASIS for England and Scotland ... but for Wales I have to buy the book?

Thanks though... and sorry to be so grumpy ( I have man-flu )

So it seems that work does take place in Wales... with no real problem ...

However... I would still like to see the stats for the UK... I bet most areas have a 'local' slant. I am sure ALGAO (cos I am supposed to do that now!!) create a state of the union 2007 list, looking at every county, every type of intervention and matched against every planning app... Is that available too? Or must we buy the book :face-huh:

"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[Gog]

Check out the National Library of Wales website - they are currently digitising every Welsh journal (AiW, Arch Camb, county societies, Welsh Hist Review, Studia Celtica, Llafur etc etc) for free access, and will roll them out from next month.

So all you Saeson (and Scots/Albanwyr, Mr Hosty!) who want to work in Wales will be able to read up all about Welsh history (which I believe you don't get taught in school) and, as a courtesy I hope, learn a bit of the language to keep the farmers on side (and to write the Welsh language summaries of course - official language, see?).

Where are the online versions of the CBA English regions, by the way? And DES has only just been uploaded onto ADS, so the moral high ground is just a ruck in the carpet - by this time next year, Wales will have put most, if not all, of its journals going back to 1900 online, with earlier stuff to follow. Another fact to be proud of I think, although not as viscerally exciting as beating England at Twickenham for the first time in 20 years... (I will tactfully skip over last weeks results, Mr Hosty, as you're clearly not a well man at the moment)

[trowelfodder]

I think it will be very interesting to see exactly how many or what proportion of welsh jobs go to the welsh units and how this compares to the number of local jobs that go to a single unit based in an area outside wales.

And is there a difference in the way a unit is treated compared to how an inhouse unit is delt with over an mistakes?

And how is the impartiality of units regulated?And to correct an earlier post the newport ship was origionaly excavated by Glamorgan Gwent Archaeological Trust and Oxford only came in when the job was retendered and GGAT nearly bankrupted. Although as an interesting aside was bailed out of trouble by using its charitable status to raise money. The mind boggles!!
:face-huh:

[Gog]

Are you suggesting that there are commercial units with charitable status out there that do not exploit it? That would make the mind boggle.

[Unitof1]

Maybe this thread should be ?Conflicts of interests in Charity Archaeology?

[voice of reason]

So all you Saeson (and Scots/Albanwyr, Mr Hosty!) who want to work in Wales will be able to read up all about Welsh history (which I believe you don't get taught in school) and, as a courtesy I hope, learn a bit of the language to keep the farmers on side (and to write the Welsh language summaries of course - official language, see?).
which specific bit of Welsh history refers to the whole of prehistory and the Roman periods then, and excludes all us "Saeson" (which I always take as spoken with a slightly derogatory tone?)

and can we apply the same exclusion rule to any Welsh archaeologist who wishes to work in England? Thought not.

I'll ask a different question then, with a Welsh slant - how many non-Welsh Trust archaeological companies are there based in Wales, and do they get the opportunity to bid for work from Cadw on a regular basis?

[drpeterwardle]

To be asked to tender for a Cadw job you have to register your interest on:

http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk/default.asp...parentId=5.

Cadw have placed contracts with organisations other than the Trusts for a long time for example the annual geophysics contract.

Peter Wardle

[voice of reason]

Thank you for that - my question still stands though - how many jobs are actually tendered eg field survey programmes, evaluations, excavations?

National contract for geophysics is rather different - no provision in Welsh Trusts for expertise in these, and call-off contract procured by tender from a single supplier is best way.

Just as an aside I see that the Cadw link makes no mention of archaeology, sad for an organisation charged with its protection.

[Oxbeast]

Wouldn't most of the field survey stuff be mostly given to the RCHMW, voice of reason? I'm not saying that you don't have a point, but certianly English Heritage liked to keep this in-house. The trusts get a lot of the agri-environment work, though.

It is impossible to know how open things are, as, like you say, things happen behind closed doors. In Lincolnshire, though, there seems to be a lot of competition, both with locally based units and ones coming in from outside the region.

Nice to hear about the Welsh journals, Gog. I'm all for open access. I'm a little confused about needing a Welsh summary for reports though. If it really is an official language, shouldn't the whole report be bilingual? Otherwise isn't this just a bit of an empty gesture?

[Mole]

I work for a County Council Field Unit with the Curators (HEM) in the same department (although not in the same building). From experience and comments received from consultants/ developers the curators seem to be slightly harder on us than 'outside' units. This goes right through from WSI to archiving.

I don't get the immpression that much goes on 'behind closed doors' but as Oxbeast said you really dont know.