Archaeology under threat in UK

[BAJR]

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101126/f...0.634.html

'Perfect storm' of proposed cuts throws field into crisis.
Matt Ford


UK archaeologists are facing a wave of cuts that they say will lead to a loss of skills and take the teaching of the subject "back to the 1950s".


To cut its national budget deficit, the UK government has launched an austerity programme that will see research funding stay static for the next four years (see 'UK scientists celebrate budget reprieve'). But archaeology is expected to be hit particularly hard, because the subject depends on a combination of public institutions run by several different government departments that are all seeing simultaneous budget reductions. "It seems like a perfect storm of factors is coming together," says Mike Heyworth, director of the Council for British Archaeology, an educational non-governmental organization.



read more....

[Drunky]

Landmark buildings could be demolished due to costs to protect them from thieves and vandals escalating.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north...s-11841466

[deadlylampshade]

I was trying to be cheerful but this is just so depressing...I don't want to 'read more'

[Dinosaur]

Will this have any direct effect on the amount of commercial work? - although presumably less regulation and less quality control if less curators? Developers will still have to comply with PPS5 etc, or will less curatorial oversight encourage non-compliance? :face-thinks:

[tmsarch]

Will this have any direct effect on the amount of commercial work? - although presumably less regulation and less quality control if less curators? Developers will still have to comply with PPS5 etc, or will less curatorial oversight encourage non-compliance?

Non-compliance with what? If there aren't any development control archaeologists to advise archaeological conditions then there won't be anything to comply with. This will surely have a massive effect on the amount of commercial work out there. In my experience Planning Officers/Departments are already stretched - will planning officers have the time to ensure archaeological conditions are applied where needed? Even if they do have the time will they have the specialist knowledge to ensure the right condition is applied? Or are we going to be happy with a situation where developers and/or their consultants recommend conditions through heritage statements and trust them to do so with the archaeological interest not their profit margins in mind?

[GnomeKing]

agreed tmsarch....though i also am so depressed about how this country (and others) are going i barley have the strength to typ...

(never mind the will to revolt)

[Dinosaur]

Non-compliance with what?

With their obligation to include heritage considerations when making a planning proposal of course, seem to recall that that's the basic thrust of PPS5?

The work load of incoming stuff shouldn't lessen just because there are less curators, but if it becomes perceived in the construction industry that few remaining overloaded curators are letting stuff through without the current level of in-depth consideration (usually), they'll start taking the p**s with the system :face-stir:

[GnomeKing]

we need strawman curators to man(person?) the battlements

[Dinosaur]

It needs something - could we give them guns like in Beau Geste? }

....or is an armed curator going too far? :0

[GnomeKing]

i would like to see them more heavily armed (and resourced)