30th July 2010, 10:51 AM
Unitof1 Wrote: Greyfriar
northerner- there is big confusion in the curators minds as to what going on. HE6 says submit with every application. The curators are still carrying on as they always have. pps5 does not seem to have changed anything for them. ALL the curators are trying to hang on to pre-application discussion. This is done through case officers. There is a charge for this advice so in effect it has become a formal procedure. As far as I am concerned the ?lets have a discussion at the earliest opportunity because it says it in ppg and pps5 is a load of rubbish particularly as for the curator to give it some consideration they must then research the site. What you really are having is the first discussion about whats required-HE6 now tells us.
Currently the curators have a great get out which is if they dont ask for anything nobody will ever know if there was anything there. The curators leave no ifa type record of the basis of their assessment. There is absolutely no comeback on them. Most planning applications are a lottery. The thing is that HE6 needs to be set up particularly if we start losing curators due to cuts. What it needs is for consideration of archaeology to be put in the planning application packs, on the forms. We can then start talking about what is a dba. Most that the curators see are for big schemes. What we need is to design them for the smallest up and the words inexpensive have to be applied. Its the demands of the curators which makes them expensive?they seem to be able to go through 100s of applications and find that nothing is required. This must have a cost per application and set the standard.
It's all become clear! Uo1 isn't anti-curator, he's a frustrated wannabe curator!
He wants to be both consultant (charging of course) and curator (deciding what needs doing), he hates the unaccountability of the present curators (forgetting that every council has scrutiny procedures and he can simply write to his local member, Douh!) and want to replace them with HIM, as of course he is totally accountable........oh hang on.........he's just a pseudonym with an avatar on a website! Presumably then if a member of the public thinks his DBA and recommendations to a planning committee were sh*t they can simply complain to the cartoon character ombudsman who can inflict punishments such as squashing by giant anvil.
This would also solve his pension obsession because he could charge all those people who don't need a heritage statement who could have just phoned up a curator to get that advice free but will have to rely on the squeaky clean, totally moral, with a public duty of care private sector (i.e. him)! Loads of money! ker ching! :face-stir:
Steven