ALSF money no longer spent on archaeology

[chrysalis]

Environmental Stewardship such as HLS DOES fund restoration and recording projects it just doesn't fund excavation (in most circumstances) because it is directed at good environmental management rather than preservation by record under the 'polluter pays' principle - and digging stuff up doesn't agree with these goals. Natural England puts millions of pounds per year into archaeology and not just 'management plans', although we do fund these to find out the costs and scope an appropriate method before we commit to a restoration or enhancement project.

However to get back to the point stewardship can't be used on sites that would previously have been funded under ALSF because a quarry can't be registered as agricultural land on the RLR and has no grazing (minimum requirements for the schemes). It would have to be a CES agreement not Stewardship. CES can be used on sites such as quarries with SSSI value but I don't know that much about them, again their goal is to manage the environment so if the environment is being dug up and carted away for sale as gravel etc I would imagine the site would not be eligable.

If someone in government is genuinely using this reason as an excuse for removal of archaeology from the list of projects eligable for ALSF funding then they don't have a clue how agri-environment schemes work! And if they've committed this argument to paper or to a speech in the commons then it is easily blown out of the water...