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Issues
Read a selection of our Rescue’s previous consultation responses.→You can also find these documents on Scribd – the online document sharing website
Rescue responds to NPPF
Today’s publication of the National Planning Policy Framework brings to an end 22 years of separate archaeological guidance within the planning system. First through PPG16, and latterly through PPS5, archaeology has been one of the various material considerations required of a developer when they are submitting an application. Part of the system maybe, but strangely peripheral in many ways. The NPPF changes this: the Government’s framework brings together what they consider to be the principle keystones of sustainable planning and…
Rescue AGM 2012
Saturday 28th April 2012, 1.00PM at the Surrey History Centre, Woking followed by 2.00pm Forty years of RESCUE archaeology by Professor Martin Biddle Admission free There are vacancies for ordinary members of Council and if you would like to offer yourself for nomination please contact the Membership Secretary or any of the Council members on the list below before the meeting. For further details of travel to the venue, please click here.
Rescue responds to curatorial cuts at Museum of London
Mary Beard, in her Times blog, first reported news of cuts at the Museum of London, on 25th February. Since that time, details have emerged on a number of intended cuts including redundancies across senior curatorial staff. The latest details indicate that the following reductions have occurred: The following posts have become redundant: 1. Senior Curator (Prehistory) 2. Senior Curator (Roman) A proposed post of combined Senior Curator (Prehistoric and Roman) has NOT been filled. 3. Senior Curator (Photographs) 4. Senior Curator…
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Stonehenge Roller Coaster Still on the Tracks
In September 2010 two Road Orders were advertised: for stopping up the A344 from the A303/A344 junction to the Stonehenge visitor centre; and for stopping up the B3086 at Airman’s Corner in order to create a new roundabout on the west side of the WHS. Since the road changes were to be inextricably linked to implementation of planning permission granted for the new visitor centre, the Stonehenge Alliance objected to the Orders on the grounds that they objected to the…
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Leicester City Council reverse decision to close museums
It has been announced that Leicester City Council have reversed their decision to close the city’s Jewry Wall Museum, Belgrave Hall, Abbey Pumping Station and The Guildhall. A campaign, mounted by , amongst others, Leicester Civic Society, has also caused the council to rethink its proposal to charge non-city entrants for admission to the museums. Rescue however remain concerned that such announcements only offer a temporary reprieve for such service, which, with no statutory status, are subject to further threat…
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Crisis facing our national treasures
RESCUE – The British Archaeological Trust welcomes the contribution of the Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers (FAME) to the debate over the future of archaeological archives in the UK. We have long advocated improvements to the system of archive deposition in local and regional museums and the creation of regional depositories to hold archives from developer-funded and amateur/voluntary excavations in perpetuity. The funding crisis has only deepened the crisis surrounding the long term curation of archaeological archives. Crisis Facing…
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Archaeological Archives: problems loom
Breaking News In response to a recently issued Press Release by the Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers (FAME), RESCUE will shortly be releasing a press release highlighting the importance of the issue, but also the importance of a long term solution. RESCUE has a long track record of concern about the lack of resource to provide suitable storage to ensure long term viability of archaeological archives. (See Dominic Perring’s article in RN 69, published in 1996, the Chairman’s letter…
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Redevelopment threat for Stanley Mill
In what may well be the first real test of PPS5, one of the most important industrial archaeological complexes in Britain, Stanley Mill in Gloucestershire is threatened with massive re-development and extensivedemolition of large parts of the site. Stanley Mill is the finest of the Stroud Valley Textile Mills, is Listed Grade 1, and survives largely complete with all its original associated buildings intact. It has remained in industrial use since its construction in 1813, and remains virtually unaltered with even some of the textile machinery remaining in position. The heritage world… See more ›
Lincolnshire County Council to shut museums
Grantham Museum will be closed by March 2011, Lincolnshire County Council, in an effort to cut costs. The closure comes as the council looks to cut £1 million from its culture budget over the next two years. As well as Grantham Museum, Stamford Museum and Church Farm Museum in Skegness will also be lost. The county council have said that it is no longer viable to keep the museums open, due to the number of visitors the museums receive against…
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Tarbat Discovery Centre to close at end of year
Tarbat Discovery Centre has announced that it will close at the end of the year unless it finds success in an Urgent Appeal it has recently launched. This innovative museum, which presents a decade of research excavations conducted by Martin Carver at the only excavated Pictish monastery at Portmahomack, relies heavily on subsidies and local authority funding. Historic Scotland, the National Museums of Scotland and The Highland Council, are sympathetic to the cause but don’t have the resources to support… See more ›
Cuts to National Museums Liverpool
Museums have been starved of resources for many years relying on donations and voluntary help from their local communities. It is ironic that David Cameron chose Liverpool to announce his Big Society concept. National Museums Liverpool receives 95% of its funding from central government and has been told to expect cuts of at least 30%. It is unlikely the Local Authorities of the area can readily make up the shortfall. Liverpool’s museums have now been forced to launch a petition protesting at potential cuts to… See more ›
Proposed cuts at Nottinghamshire County Coucil
Nottinghamshire County Council have published proposals for cuts to the Council’s Conservation Budget of 75%, reducing their staff from 33 to 6. This will effectively mean the end of all county archaeology services in Nottinghamshire. At the moment it seems unlikely that any of the remaining 6 staff will be archaeologists. The proposals can be found here. Rescue is supporting a campaign to fight these cuts. We urge as many members as possible to write to local MPs and the… See more ›
Redundancies at Birmingham Archaeology
It has recently emerged that large redundancies are to be implemented at Birmingham Archaeology, the contracting unit of The University of Birmingham. Hal Dalwood, of Worcestershire County Council Archaeological Service, reported on BAJR Federation Forum that ..40 or so staff of Birmingham Archaeology were handed their redundancy notices early last week, and they were all invited to reapply for 13 posts. There is a consultation period with unions and staff so the numbers are not definitive. The biggest impact will…
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Loss of archaeologist at Museums Sheffield
Museums Sheffield, the Trust which runs several of Sheffield’s museums, including Weston Park Museum, now have no archaeologist in post, the previous Keeper of Archaeology having left for another job, with her post then being frozen due to lack of money. The Museum, the collecting area of which encompasses a major part of South Yorkshire and north Derbyshire is also no longer accepting archives from archaeological contractors, meaning that archives will have to be held by those contractors until alternative… See more ›
Save Greenwich WHS from the Olympics: a beneficial cut
As reported in RN 109 in January this year LOCOG applied for planning permission for the construction of temporary structures required to stage the Olympics 2012 equestrian events and modern pentathlon events at Greenwich Royal Park. These events are set to take place in July and August 2012, while the Paralympics dressage competitions would take place in September 2012. At a planning meeting to consider the application at Greenwich Town Hall on 23 March 2010 more than 30 speakers, who… See more ›
PPS5 (Planning for the Historic Environment) : Rescue Responds
The Government has this week published PPS5, the policy document that replaces PPGs 15 and 16. This document and its supporting Practice Guide will dictate the way that planning applications affecting heritage sites and features are processed and determined. For the first time, all heritage features – from standing historic buildings, to archaeological features, battlefields, historic landscapes and conservation areas – will be subject to the same set of policy criteria by which to assess the nature of any threat…
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Stonehenge Update (January 2010)
The planning application for a new Stonehenge visitor centre and associated works was considered by Wiltshire Council’s Strategic Planning Committee on Wednesday 20 January. www.salisbury.gov.uk/planning/development-control/planning-applications/2009/1527/application-documentation.htm In summary, the scheme proposals are for closure of the A344/A303 junction at Stonehenge Bottom and greening of the A344 up to the Henge; removal of parking and other facilities from the present location to Airman’s Corner, at the junction of the A344 with the A360 on the western edge of the WHS; retention of…
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Save Colchester Circus: Rescue backs the campaign
Rescue has now been told that the initial campaign to raise £200,000 has been successful – many congratulations to the campaigners – see www.romancircus.org/2010/03/01/thank-you-appeal-reaches-its-200000-target/ Destination Colchester and Colchester Archaeology Trust are together trying to raise funds to buy the Sergeants’ Mess building and garden of Abbey Fields from developers Taylor Wimpey to save a unique site from redevelopment and help preserve Colchester’s town’s unique heritage. Deadline now February 2010 The Appeal has had the deadline to raise enough money to… See more ›
Rescue adds its voice to concern over damaging Olympic proposals for Greenwich Park
Rescue is backing a campaign led by NOGOE – No to Greenwich Olympic Equestrian Events to ensure that The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) fully considers the archaeological implications of the planned Olympic Equestrian events in Greenwich Park. Greenwich Park is an area of intense archaeological interest, within the World Heritage Site. A Roman temple complex was discovered in 1902 on a mound in the Park by the then Superintendant, A D Webster and the noted Blackheath… See more ›
PPS Alert
The Consultation period for a new Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 15: Planning for the Historic Environment ended on the 31st October. Rescue responded, together with an array of institutions with interests in the future of British Archaeology. We have tried to collate below as many links as possible to relevant responses. However, please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like a link to your response to be added. These links open in a new window unless otherwise…
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- Rescue Publish Fighting Back
- Closure of Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit
- Ministry of Justice statement on the exhumation of human remains for archaeological purposes
- Rescue concerned over City of Adelaide’s future
- Trouble in Store: facing up to the archives crisis
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» Community archaeologist made reduntant in Leicestershire
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» No more council funds for Wiltshire Heritage Museum
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» Gloucestershire County Council Archaeology Service
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» Natural England historic environment staff lost
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» Concerns for archaeology in North-East Lincolnshire
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