Scheduled and saved!

[juamei]

Or not...

Anyone know when the last time an archaeological site was discovered during development and the development was changed to not only allow the site to survive but also to be visited etc?

Seems to me that sites discovered during development are only "saved" through record nowadays...

[Sandy]

I can think of no examples. The reason is that the organisation responsible for scheduling the site would be responsible for compensating the developers and I am not aware that there is a budget for this. It is therefore extremely unlikely that sites uncovered during permitted development operations will be protected. Delighted to be proven wrong and perhaps this is something that needs to be highlighted as an important issue.

[AlanS]

I'd hazard a guess at the Temple of Mithras, or the Guildhall Collosseum, both in London, and neither of them recent. So not under the current legislation...

[Nigel]

Its right and proper that if a public authority "takes" value away from someone compensation is payable (Housing, roads etc) but its awful that in the case of scheduling it comes from the scheduling authority, thereby making them have a financial interest in their own decision. I used to be involved in assessing compensation in compulsory purchase cases using criteria laid out in the Act. If our department was the one paying out it would have been crazy. Yet isnt that the position with EH? The scheduling criteria are in the Act, their job is to see if they apply. I have to wonder, if the criteria apply perfectly how do they rationalise not scheduling? They can hardly admit that they cant afford it.

[juamei]

A second scarier question is how many times has the criteria for scheduling been met but overridden by cost constraints?

[Sandy]

At the bottom of this is the old problem of scheduling being discretionary. This was the reason for abandoning scheduling through much of the noughties and of course an easy get of jail card when nationally important archaeology is discovered in areas with permitted development rights. Until the discretionary element of the legislation is removed archaeology will always play second fiddle. Nigel you are of course right it is madness, but as long as the Secretary of State can choose not to protect archaeology which everyone agrees is of national importance this situation will continue.

[Nigel]

But who has that discretion?

According to them, EH "advises Government on matters concerning the historic environment and recommends which heritage assets warrant protection". The Secretary of State has the discretion to ignore their recommendation but does EH have the discretion to recommend to him that scheduling criteria should be ignored in a particular case? I'd have thought they are only entitled to concern themselves with archaeology not the wider political considerations.

[Sandy]

This has been my point for years. I kept saying that it is the SoS who possesses the discretion and not EH. The answer then was that the SoS had been informed that scheduling was suspended (except for real emergencies) and that the SoS was content with this. Yes indeed the decision to schedule nationally important archaeological sites or not lies with the SoS but of course they take advice from EH. This advice is not always followed but I think it would be fair to say that it usually is.

[Nigel]

This has been my point for years. I kept saying that it is the SoS who possesses the discretion and not EH. The answer then was that the SoS had been informed that scheduling was suspended (except for real emergencies) and that the SoS was content with this.

That excuse works when scheduling has been suspended but what is the excuse when it isnt suspended? There isnt one is there? Other than to think the SoS has his advisors in his pocket and they advise what he wants them to. Thats certainly not what the Act intends....

[Sandy]

Indeed. What is needed is a site that is clearly of national importance where planning permission has been granted and a scheduling application in place before its destroyed. Should not be too difficult.