Written evidence submitted by the Association
of Local Government Archaeological Officers for England (ALGAO:
England) (arts 42)
1. THE ROLE
OF ALGAO: ENGLAND
The Association of Local Government Archaeological
Officers for England (ALGAO: England) is the national body representing
local government archaeology services at County, District, Metropolitan,
Unitary and National Park level in England. ALGAO: England co-ordinates
the views of its member authorities (93 in total, with full geographical
coverage of England) and presents them to government and to other
national organisations.
The range of interests of our members embraces
all aspects of the historic environment including archaeology,
buildings and the historic landscape. ALGAO: England members are
responsible for:
— the management of all Historic Environment
Records (HERs), which provide information on archaeological sites,
historic buildings, historic settlements and landscapes, for use
in the planning and other statutory systems, and more general
use by the public;
— for the management of the 95% of the
archaeological heritage which is not designated, in particular
through the planning system (plan-making and development management),
and the provision of advice on land management especially through
agri-environment schemes; and
— for education and outreach programmes,
working with local communities.
This submission provides the views of ALGAO:
England on funding issues affecting the heritage.
2. MATTERS RAISED
BY THE
SELECT COMMITTEE
2.1 The impact of recent and future spending
cuts in central and local government on the heritage
2.2.1 ALGAO: England is extremely concerned
about the impact on the heritage of anticipated spending cuts
on the following aspects of national and local heritage services
and management.
2.2.2 English Heritage:
ALGAO members work in partnership with English
Heritage, the government's statutory adviser on heritage. We are
concerned about the scale of the cuts in departmental budgets
affecting DCMS that may emerge as a result of the comprehensive
spending review in the autumn and how these will impact on English
Heritage. Particular areas of concern are:
— the national advisory and enabling role
that English Heritage provides the heritage sector through guidance,
publications, targeted grant aid and training. This work is highly
valued by ALGAO, is cost-effective and could not be delivered
easily by others in the sector
— the statutory designation and protection
role of English Heritage for the historic environment. This is
a vital role for the sector which already is under-resourced.
Any further reductions in funding will result in a loss of protection
for England's most significant heritage assets.
2.2.3 Defra—Natural England and agri-environment
schemes:
The rural archaeological resource of over 500,000
sites recorded on HERs and many more currently unknown sites is
at risk from damage from agriculture (especially ploughing), erosion,
vegetation cover and neglect. Over recent years substantial improvements
have been made in the management of many of these sites by their
inclusion in agri-environment schemes, especially Higher Level
Stewardship. Despite this, many thousands of sites including nationally
designated (Scheduled) archaeological sites are still at risk
(as shown by English Heritage's Heritage at Risk surveys). ALGAO
is concerned that future cuts to Defra and Natural England's budget
will restrict the funding available for future such schemes and,
by failing to renew existing ones, will result in existing benefits
being lost and a potential waste of the current resources that
are invested in positive management.
2.2.4 Local government archaeological services:
Although ALGAO member local government services
are responsible for the management of 95% of the archaeological
resource they are non-statutory, and will be very much at risk
to cuts in local authority funding. ALGAO member authorities are
already modelling budget cuts of up to 40% over the next few years
and it is difficult to see in these circumstances how such services
will survive. Typically services consist of three or four staff
responsible for providing essential information and advice on
the archaeology of a county, national park, or group of unitary
authorities.
One of the most important roles of ALGAO member
local authority services and their teams is to implement government
planning policy for the historic environment, contained within
Planning Policy Statement 5, Planning for the Historic Environment.
This includes ensuring the smooth and efficient operation of the
planning and archaeology process by managing the risk of delays
to development, caused for instance by unexpected archaeological
discoveries. Our experience is that where this aspect of our member
services have been cut, frequent problems occur with development
projects, due to the absence of appropriate specialist advice
to planners and developers. We are therefore very concerned that
current and future reductions in staffing and service provision
to ALGAO member services will result in widespread problems where
archaeological remains are affected by development projects. These
potential problems are also likely to impact more widely on employment
in the heritage sector and the ability of the planning system
generally to deliver development.
In addition, where substantial cuts to services
have occurred in the past, the experience of ALGAO is that the
costs of recreating the service to the same level at a given point
in the future are considerably greater. This is because many of
the aspects of ALGAO member services such as HER management and
the monitoring of development and land-use change are ongoing
and are not undertaken elsewhere. Therefore, if they are cut,
the result is an end to the systemic monitoring and advice and
also to the recording of change and new information on HERs—for
the given area covered. The lack of data recording (for instance
from new archaeological discoveries) and the absence of monitoring
of current and proposed development therefore results in both
a loss of protection to the historic environment and steadily
increasing backlogs of work.
ALGAO are consequently keen that Government
is made fully aware of the risks of cutting ALGAO member services,
including the impact this will have on the development sector
and the likelihood that if services are completely cut they will
almost certainly need to be recreated—at greater cost—in
some point in the future.
2.2 What level of public subsidy for the heritage
is necessary and sustainable
2.3 Whether the current system and structure
of funding distribution is the right one
2.4 What impact recent changes to the distribution
of National Lottery funding
3. OTHER AREAS
OF INTEREST
We feel that the reintroduction of the Heritage
Bill by Government at the earliest opportunity will serve to make
the system of heritage protection more efficient and transparent
and will also help to maintain the current framework of information
and specialist advice provided by English Heritage and Local Government.
In particular, ALGAO are keen to see the proposal made in the
draft Heritage Bill to make the maintenance of Historic Environment
Records a statutory provision of local authorities taken forward
in a Heritage Bill. This provision could be introduced at minimal
or no cost and would secure this vital resource for the heritage
sector, planners, developers and local communities.
September 2010
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