Quote:quote:The unemployment crisis amongst field archaeologists was highlighted in a letter to The Times from Geoffrey Wainwright, President of The Society of Antiquaries of London and Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve, President of the British Academy. With the current dearth of building starts, demand from developers has dried up and nearly every such practice is experiencing acute financial difficulty. 'Unless steps are taken immediately, the specialised skills in these practices (archaeologists, illustrators, ceramic and bone specialists, conservators, etc) could be lost, which would be disastrous in itself, and will in turn delay eventual recovery in the construction sector'. 'The security of excavation archives - documents, computer-held data and objects - in the care and possession of these practices is also at serious risk', the letter continued and 'Urgent action is needed to safeguard this material for the future and to avert the risk of significant loss to the UK's cultural heritage.' The correspondence and readers' comments are at http://www.timesonline.co.uk:80/tol/comment/letters/article5982560.ece

The Lords had already pitched in on 7 March with the Earl of Glasgow stating that of the 6,500 professional archaeologists in work last year approximately one-fifth had lost their jobs in the past six months. Lord Howarth asked for confirmation that the new Planning Policy Statement on heritage and archaeology would not diminish existing protections for archaeology, particularly in respect of the duties that local planning authorities may lay upon developers, and that the Government would look to local authorities not to reduce the capacity of their historic environment services'. Lord Davies of Oldham replied 'This is clearly a difficult time, but it is clear right across government, industry and the economy that if we lose skilled people at this time and set them at naught, the progress of recovery will be that much slower and that Britain will have greater difficulties in competing with the wider world unless we enhance the skills base.' The full text is at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldhansrd/text/90309-0001.htm