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Year: 2010

  • Making PPS5 work: realising the benefits of planning-led investigation of the historic environment

    Announcement of open workshops on improving practice

    24/25 January 2011

    Historic environment practitioners are invited to participate in a series of free open workshops. These will explore ways in which the historic environment sector across England can increase the benefits of planning-led work for the public, for the development sector and for the historic environment sector itself.

    Each workshop will focus on a different aspect of understanding and sharing the significance of the historic environment and will cover the diverse needs of the built, buried and underwater resource.

    Workshop discussions will lead to a report, to be published in April 2011, setting out a road map for change.

    Further details of the agenda for each workshop are available at www.archaeologists.net/Southport. Please let us know if you have any comments on these agendas by writing to the email address below.

    To book your place, please email southport@archaeologists.net, by 10 January 2011 indicating which of the four workshops you wish to attend. Workshops are free to attend but spaces will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. You are welcome to attend one workshop or several.

    The venue for all the workshops will be the Museum of London Docklands

    There will be four workshops, as follows:

    24 January

    10.00-1.30       Workshop 1:  How to achieve better quality in delivery (Chairs Peter Hinton, Stewart Bryant)

    2.30-6.00         Workshop 2:  How to achieve better opportunities for public participation and involvement in decision making, and improved quality of publication and dissemination (Chairs Mike Heyworth and Matthew Slocombe)

    25 January

    10.00-1.30       Workshop 3:  How to achieve proper compilation and transfer of archive material and improved access to archives (Chairs Duncan Brown and Hedley Swain, to confirm)

    2.30-6.00         Workshop 4:  How to achieve a better research focus in delivery, and how to address fragmentation in the sector (Chairs Chris Gosden, Adrian Tindall and Frank Kelsall)

    At a later date, a fifth workshop of invited delegates from the property sector will ask how we are to achieve clearer focus on the needs of the client (funding) body in terms of product and proportionality.

    These seminars are an initiative of the Southport Group see www.archaeologists.net/Southport for more details.

     

  • FAME meets the Minister

    FAME meets the Minister

    FAME Chief Executive Adrian Tindall joined a delegation from The Archaeology Forum to meet John Penrose, Minister for Tourism and Heritage, at DCMS on 16 November. The delegation also included Pete Hinton of IfA, Mike Heyworth of CBA and Stewart Bryant of ALGAO(UK).

    It provided an opportunity to emphasise the wide public interest in the heritage and the contribution it makes to localism, and to outline some of the challenges currently facing the profession, including the impact of English Heritage funding cuts, the threat to local government historic environment services, and the fragile state of the archaeological market.

    The meeting was an opportunity to raise the profile of FAME and its members with central government, and to highlight our role in implementing PPS5 at the ‘sharp end’ of development-led archaeology. FAME reiterated the vital role of local government archaeologists in identifying developments with potential archaeological impact, without whose work many of its members would find it very difficult to remain in business. We also emphasised the fragile nature of an archaeological market in which many of the practitioners were charitable or not-for-profit organisations, yet found themselves operating as small and medium enterprises in a commercial environment. Many were finding it increasingly difficult to deliver the expected public benefit, in line with the government’s vision and objectives, in an increasingly competitive market.

    It proved to be a very constructive and positive meeting. The minister showed an encouraging familiarity with PPS5 and an awareness of many of the issues raised. He agreed to consider redrafting the DCMS draft statutory guidance on HERs and publishing it as guidance for local authorities, and made it clear that he would welcome further representations from the sector in the future.

  • FAME highlights storage crisis

    The Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers (FAME) has warned that in many parts of the country there is no museum space to store and preserve important finds discovered by archaeological teams.

    The building boom of the last two decades has been matched by a massive increase in the number of archaeological discoveries resulting from development. And new government guidance requires developers to record and publish the results of digs – and deposit the findings in a local museum.

    However, in many parts of the country, crammed and overstretched local museums are refusing to accept any more finds. They include museums in Cambridgeshire, Kent, Northamptonshire, Sheffield and many other areas. And local government cutbacks are likely to place even more pressure on staff and facilities.

    As a result, archaeology units are reaching bursting point with finds and records which are hidden from the public and unable to find a permanent home. It is estimated that the country’s leading practices may be storing over 15,000 boxes of archaeological finds and records on 5,000 sites, at an annual cost of perhaps £0.25m – because no museum is willing or able to accept them. This is a major museum collection in its own right.

    FAME Chief Executive Adrian Tindall said “This problem has been twenty years in the making. We would like to work with local museums and the Heritage Lottery Fund to set up resource centres, so that the public can see important local discoveries. But we must also look more carefully at whether keeping everything we find is really sustainable. For too long we have assumed that all finds must be kept, in case they’re needed for future research. Whilst this might occasionally be justified, we need to concentrate much more on the public benefit of what we keep.”

    FAME Chairman Roland Smith added “It’s so important that the findings of archaeological digs are made available to the general public. This crisis is denying local communities, the wider general public and researchers the opportunity to see and learn from the discoveries that are being made in the towns and countryside in which they live.

    Archaeological practices do not operate as museums. At the moment they have no alternative but to hold this material, but in the long term there is a risk to these collections if museums – who have the appropriate expertise – are unable to find suitable space for them”.

    One of the hidden treasures – a Roman enamelled brooch in the form of a hare, from the route of High Speed One, Kent (reproduced courtesy of High Speed One).

    Editors note

    The Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers represents around 50 archaeological employers in the UK, who together employ one in three of the archaeological workforce.  For further information, contact

    Adrian Tindall, Chief Executive

    T: 01284 767681

    M: 07715 050318

    E: info@planforthepast.co.uk

    		 Roland Smith, Chairman

    T: 01722 326867

    M: 07775 501925

    E: r.smith@wessexarch.co.uk

  • Presentations from “2020 Vision: a new era in British archaeology”

    The FAME Open Meeting in York 2020 Vision: a new era in British archaeology proved an important landmark, not just for FAME but perhaps the future of development-led archaeology in this country. It was attended by over seventy delegates, of whom two-thirds were FAME members, with the remainder from ALGAO, English Heritage and other organisations. The speakers offered a wide variety of perspectives on how development-led archaeology might need to change over the next decade in response to the publication of PPS5 and likely local government cuts. (more…)

  • 2020 Vision: a new era in British Archaeology

    FAME in association with ALGAO is pleased to announce a joint meeting in York on Friday 2nd July 2010 to discuss the potential impacts of the publication of PPS5: Planning for the Historic Environment. For further details, please download the leaflet.

  • Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust Ltd VAT

    Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust Ltd VAT

    FAME has sent a letter of support on behalf of the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust Ltd to HMRC which can be read here:

    HMRC-GGAT-LetterDownload

  • FAME welcomes new guidance – with some reservations

    FAME (The Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers) has given a cautious welcome to new government guidance on conserving the heritage.

    Planning for the Historic Environment 1 sets out the way in which heritage assets, such as historic buildings, monuments, sites and landscapes, will be conserved and managed in the future. It advises planners and developers to assess the significance of these assets and their settings before shaping policy, or formulating or determining planning proposals. It also stresses the need to balance the interests of conservation and economic development, and provides guidance on the recording of heritage assets where change or loss is unavoidable. A Practice Guide gives more
    detailed advice.

    FAME Chief Executive Adrian Tindall said “We welcome the new guidance on planning for the historic environment. Existing guidance has been in use for two decades, and new government guidance is long overdue. We are pleased to see the historic environment placed firmly back in the planning mainstream, and to see its contribution to sustainable development and local distinctiveness acknowledged.

    “However, we do have some concerns about its implementation. The new guidance will only succeed if the appropriate skills are developed and retained, both within local government and amongst commercial contractors. Our quarterly job losses survey with the Institute for Archaeologists has shown the impact of the economic downturn on our sector. We look forward to working with other heritage organisations in trying to retain and develop skills within our profession.

    “We are also concerned about the variable standard of contract archaeology being carried out in different parts of the UK, and are keen to see a universally-accepted level of accreditation for contract work, to ensure that implementation of the new PPS is carried out to the highest professional standards”.

    FAME Chairman Roland Smith added “We welcome the requirement for developers to publish the results of investigations, to encourage greater public engagement and to deposit the archives with local museums, but remain concerned about the crisis resulting from the growing volume of archaeological material currently held by FAME
    members, with no museum willing or able to accept it.

    “The world of contract archaeology has changed significantly over the two decades since the last government guidance was issued, and we feel that the time is right for a thorough review of how cost-effectively – or otherwise – the archaeological marketplace in the UK now operates”.

    Editors note

    The Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers represents 70 archaeological employers in the UK, who together employ around 30% of the archaeological workforce. For further information, contact

    Adrian Tindall, Chief Executive
    T: 01284 767681
    M: 07715 050318
    E: info@planforthepast.co.uk

    Roland Smith, Chairman
    T: 01722 326867
    M: 07775 501925
    E: r.smith@wessexarch.co.uk

    1 Planning Policy Statement 5: Planning for the Historic Environment (Department for
    Communities and Local Government, 2010)