17th February 2009, 10:52 AM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by voice of reason
Not another knee-jerk 'archaeological charities aren't really charities' bash - this was dealt with ad nauseam in a previous thread - the practice of archaeology is considered a charitable aim per se by the Charity Commission (sse item f below) - the misconception that you have to 'do education' is plain wrong. Surplus (not profit, as charities are not-for-profit) is considered perfectly acceptable and indeed necessary to the operation of a charity.
The Charities Act sets out the following descriptions of charitable purposes:
a) the prevention or relief of poverty;
b) the advancement of education;
c) the advancement of religion;
d) the advancement of health or the saving of lives;
e) the advancement of citizenship or community development;
f) the advancement of the arts, culture, heritage or science;
g) the advancement of amateur sport;
h) the advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation or the promotion of religious or racial harmony or equality and diversity;
i) the advancement of environmental protection or improvement;
j) the relief of those in need, by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage;
k) the advancement of animal welfare;
l) the promotion of the efficiency of the armed forces of the Crown, or of the efficiency of the police, fire and rescue services or ambulance services;
m) other purposes currently recognised as charitable and any new charitable purposes which are similar to another charitable purpose.
I'm not sure a knee-jerk reaction against a potential knee-jerk reaction is particularly constructive either though. We'd all just be doing the Can-Can or Hokey-Cokey then!
One thing I'd like to ask though - if archaeological work carried out in advance of development as a result of PPG15 and PPG16 is acceptable as 'adding to the sum of human knowledge about the past' are there charities/trusts doing environmental impact assessments and bat surveys in similar circumstances? Surely it would fall under 'i) the advancement of environmental protection or improvement'.