Meeting documents

An Overview item for Members to examine the Council’s statutory duties as record keeper, its ability to carry out its duties and charging opportunities to generate income whilst delivering high quality advice.

Contributors:

Mrs Lesley Clarke OBE, Cabinet Member for Planning and Environment

Mr Simon Newell, Environment Team Leader

Mr Phil Markham, Senior Archaeology Officer

Ms Julia Wise, Historic Environment Records Officer

Mr Mike Farley, Bucks Archaeological Society

The Chairman welcomed Mr Phil Markham, Senior Archaeology Officer, Mr Simon Newell, Environment Team Leader, Ms Julia Wise, Historic Environments Record Officer and Mr Mike Farley, Bucks Archaeological Society to the meeting.  Mr Markham took members through his report, which provided an overview of the role of the Archaeology service and the legislation under which they operate, partnership working with the district councils as the local planning authorities, how the team generate income currently and the future challenges and opportunities for the service.  The Chairman then invited Mr Mike Farley of the Bucks Archaeological Society to inform members of the history and work of the Society and how the Society interacts with the Council’s Archaeology team.

During these discussions and in response to subsequent questions from members the following main points were noted:

·         Mr Farley outlined why the Archaeology Service was very important.  Buckinghamshire has historical sites of great significance and whilst developments of new houses, shopping centres and roads were very positive it was vital that the implications of development on our heritage was recognised and the Archaeology team played a key role in protecting this for future generations.

·         Fortunately the profession of Archaeology has grown over the years and it was important to have qualified people to assess what was needed to protect historical sites.  An up to date Historical Environment Record(HER) was key to informing future developments in the county.

·         Bucks Archaeological Society respected the professionalism of the service provided by Buckinghamshire County Council and wanted to encourage greater public awareness of their work.  Some of the Society’s members volunteered in the county archives and at the museum.  But there were concerns that the service was over-stretched, as keeping the HER updated and providing advice and monitoring the progress of large developments was demanding, as it was so important to ensure that standards were being met.  Also HS2 would increase the workload for the team and they were already struggling to support any significant Outreach work.

·         A member commented that he was aware that although Planning officers at the district councils knew about the HER, they did not always consult it – was there anything that could be done to ensure that developers consulted the HER at pre-application or at least, when preparing to submit their application. Julia Wise agreed that it would be helpful if consulting the HER could be included on the pre-application checklists for all the district councils and if the Planning officers reinforced the need to consult the HER at an early stage.

·         It was noted that when the team were busy it was inputting new information into the HER which would be held up.  Julia Wise would have to prioritise dealing with developer inquiries over the inputting duties.  The only reason the HER was currently as up to date as it is, was due to Julia’s personal dedication in working longer than her contracted hours. Simon Newell recognised this and felt it was a priority to secure additional support in this area.

·         Members asked if volunteers could be used to help with data inputting but Mike Farley and Julia Wise explained that this was very difficult.  Whilst volunteers compiled the original HER back in the 1970s, it now required an experienced professional to be able to distil the significance of what has been found.  Background research and field work are often undertaken by two different people, so the wider context is not always clear when reading a report for the HER.  The HER was a very complicated database and has to comply with national standards, so volunteers would need a large amount of training and monitoring.

·         Members were concerned that the maintenance of the HER was so reliant on the expertise and dedication of one person.  The Environment Team Leader was asked whether external funding could be secured to support this area.  Simon Newell gave an example of a local authority in Surrey which charges a HER search fee as a requirement of the planning process, which then generates an ongoing revenue stream to support the maintenance of the HER.  Additional staff would be needed to meet the increased demand but this was being considered. Also the possibility of establishing Service Level Agreements with the district councils was being explored.  This was already in place for the Ecology service.  In the short term Simon Newell hoped to appoint a part-time HER assistant using funding from HS2, but this might only be up until April 2016.  There was also scope to secure funding from developers via Community Infrastructure Levy and S106 agreements.

·         A bid for Heritage Lottery Funding (HLF) had been submitted in partnership with the Chilterns Conservation Board for the preservation and promotion of Hill Forts across Buckinghamshire.  If the bid was successful then again some funding might be available for the HER.

·         The Chairman advised that he was aware of some situations where planning conditions, including the submission of Archaeological reports had not been met.  Phil Markham explained that generally planning conditions were enforced but BCC were reliant on the district councils for enforcement.

·         ‘Unlocking Buckinghamshire’s Past’, a more user friendly and accessible version of the HER for public use had been migrated onto new software and was not totally up to date due to a technical issue with the publication process.  The software providers were looking into this and the fact that the number of hits the website receives stopped being counted following the switch.  Julia Wise was asked to report back to members with an update on when this problem would be resolved.

ACTION: Julia Wise

·         In response to a question regarding value for money, Simon Newell assured members that the service being delivered was very good and the quality of advice given was not in dispute, but the challenge for the future was how the small team could continue to maintain this level of service with the demands of extra developments, HS2, Cross Rail etc.

·         The Chairman asked if there was a plan in place, given the challenges highlighted, to enable the team to improve their Outreach work etc.  Simon Newell explained that now the Transport, Environment and Economy (TEE) Business Unit was up and running, there were delivery plans in place and a key goal for the team was to increase Outreach. Strategies were being developed in order to achieve this goal.  Initial discussions had also been held with the Local Economic Partnership (LEP) around raising the profile of Bucks Heritage and how BCC can support partners and the public by supplying data, especially via the HER.

The Chairman thanked Simon Newell, Phil Markham, Julia Wise and Mike Farley for attending the meeting.  The Committee had a discussion about a suitable outcome from the session which had highlighted some areas of concern, particularly in relation to the resourcing of this area.  The Chairman proposed and members agreed that it would be appropriate to write to the Cabinet Member with some informal recommendations, including the following:

·         It would be worth investigating making a chargeable search of the HER a mandatory part of the planning process in Bucks, as has been adopted in Tandridge, Surrey.

·         The team need further resources to ensure that the HER can be kept up to date.

·         It would be useful to strengthen relationships with the district councils further to ensure increased levels of engagement during the application process and effective enforcement thereafter.  Service Level Agreements could be worth pursuing in order to secure a consistent income stream for the service.

·         Members were keen to see the ‘Unlocking Buckinghamshire’s Past’ website maintained and for further plans for Outreach to be supported and adequately resourced.

ACTION: Chairman & Committee Adviser

(Post-meeting note: Subsequent to the meeting the Chairman of the Select Committee was appointed to the post of Cabinet Member for Planning and Environment.  Therefore it was agreed that a copy of the minutes would be sent to him as a reminder of the informal recommendations that the Committee wished to make.)

The Committee requested that a further update from the Archaeology team should be included in the Work Programme for the early part of 2016.

ACTION: Committee Adviser