Planning Policy Guidance note number 16

Geoffrey Wainwright, Chief Archaeologist, English Heritage.

PPG 16 is an advisory note which advocates the presumption of preserving important archaeological sites and their settings, and supplies the mechanism by which financial resources for any necessary assessment, evaluation, excavation and analysis can be provided by the developer.

Its essence is that in considering development proposals, local planning authorities shall give due recognition to the importance of archaeological remains. It is also the framework in which the Secretary of State for the Environment will consider cases of national importance coming before him: every Planning Inquiry Inspector has a copy of PPG 16, and judges every case within the framework of the document, which explains the processes, and how he should respond in a given set of circumstances.

The stages by which archaeological consideration is evaluated in the process up to the determination of a development application are of central importance, and the terms are used with great precision, as meaning something in the planning process:

1. APPRAISAL. A quick initial process of determining whether there is an archaeological dimension to a development, even if only by going and looking over the hedge.

2. ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT. Not to be confused with Evaluation; purely a desk―based exercise. Background research whose overall purpose is to review and consolidate existing information as a factual report, by consulting all possible sources, from SMR downwards. The end result is a factual report of the accumulated background information, together with a synthesis of the archaeological data, and notes on the local/regional/national context as appropriate. As part of the same, or as a separate document, is the consideration of the need for the

3. FIELD EVALUATION. Detailed examination of the archaeology, with trenching paramount. There should be, but sometimes isn't, a PROJECT SPECIFICATION drawn up as part of the Assessment stage and approved by a (professional) archaeologist. The evaluation stage should include all or as many as possible of the various surveying techniques, including trial trenching. 1%―2% of the area is a small but manageable sample. The methodology of trenching is under discussion. The product of the Evaluation is a detailed factual report, in sections, by methodologies employed, and both it and the Assessment conform with the specifications in PPG 16.

4. STRATEGY FORMULATION. Once all the facts are known, the local authority must formulate its strategy. It has four options:

(1) To refuse consent for the most important cases;

(2) To modify the development proposal to cause minimum disturbance;

(3) To seek excavation before destruction;

(4) To ask for a watching brief while development is taking place.