The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

• 306 • Timothy Darvill
Development control relates to the decision-making process as it applies to individual schemes.
Here international legislation provides the top layer of guidance. In 1985, the European
Commission introduced a Directive on Environmental Assessment (Directive 85/337/EC), which was
implemented in the United Kingdom as The Town and Country Planning (Assessment of Environmental
Effects) Regulations 1988. This provides for the full review of the impact of large and potentially
damaging schemes, including reviews of archaeological remains that might be affected. The
Directive was revised in 1997 (Directive N 97/11/EC), and this in turn will carry through into new
legislation in the United Kingdom in due course.
At regional and local level, development control is carried out through the granting of planning
permission by local authorities. In determining applications for planning permission, the authorities
must give consideration to a wide range of factors. National Planning Policy Guidance notes set
out the parameters within which decisions can be taken, and in England PPG 16, entitled Archaeology
and Planning, explains the main considerations (similar guidance is provided for Scotland and
Wales in separate documents). In particular, the desirability of preserving nationally important
sites in situ is made a material consideration, and rescue archaeology is identified as a second-best
option where preservation in situ is not possible. In granting planning permission, the local planning
authority has the power to impose a planning condition that makes provision for an agreed
programme of archaeological works (a so-called mitigation strategy) to be carried out prior to
the development taking place. Such works would normally be undertaken at the developer’s
expense.
In England, approximately 480,000 planning applications were submitted to local planning
authorities in 1994/5, of which 88 per cent were approved outright or subject to conditions.
Processing all these amounts to a very considerable amount of work, especially when it is
recognized that nearly 2 per cent of applications had archaeological implications, with perhaps a
little under 1 per cent having direct archaeological impacts on recorded remains. Of course, the
definition of development is not all-embracing, and many things that are archaeologically damaging
fall outside the definition, or are excluded from it by other pieces of special-purpose legislation
(e.g. works carried out by public utility companies). Equally, there is provision for the preservation
of archaeological remains within other legislation, for example as part of the designation of
environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs), and, most recently, for England and Wales, through the
reporting of stray finds set out in the Treasure Act 1997.
Ancient monuments legislation
At an international level, the main pieces of guiding legislation are the World Heritage Convention
and the Valletta Convention. The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural
Heritage, the World Heritage Convention, is a UNESCO convention, adopted by the General
Conference in Paris on the 16th November 1972. It was ratified by the UK Government in 1984,
and to 1997 some twelve cultural World Heritage Sites within the UK have been inscribed, including:
Studley Royal Park and Fountains Abbey, Stonehenge and Avebury, Canterbury Cathedral and St
Augustine’s Abbey, The City of Bath, Durham Castle and Cathedral, The City of Edinburgh,
The Tower of London, Blenheim Palace, The Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey, the
castles and town walls of King Edward I in Gwynedd, Ironbridge Gorge and Hadrian’s Wall. The
primary aim of the Convention is to draw up a list of sites and monuments considered to be of
such exceptional interest and such universal value that their protection is the responsibility of all
mankind. This is achieved by encouraging international collaboration and making the conservation,
management and presentation of World Heritage Sites the direct responsibility of the government
of the state in which the designated site lies.