PPG 16

PPG 16 is short for Planning Policy Guidance 16 Archaeology and Planning, a document produced by the British Government to advise local planning authorities on the treatment of archaeology within the planning process. It was introduced in November 1990 following public outcry after a number of high profile scandals such as the threatened destruction of the Rose Theatre in London by developers. It replaced the earlier Circular 8/87 which was criticised for being ill-focused in both practical and geographical terms.

What PPG 16 says

The document advises that archaeological remains are a finite and irreplaceable resource and that their presence should be a material consideration in applications for new development. It accepts that development will affect archaeological deposits and that this effect must be mitigated. PPG 16 stresses the importance of the evaluation of a site for its archaeological potential in advance of development in order to inform future management decisions. This evaluation may involve non intrusive methods such as a desk-based study or geophysical survey and/or a more direct method such as trial trenching.

Following the results of the initial evaluation, PPG 16 offers two solutions for preserving any significant archaeological deposits found to be on a development site. The first, and explicitly preferred, method involves preservation in situ whereby the archaeology is left untouched beneath a new development through methods such as adaptation of foundation design and architectural layout of the proposed new development, or by raising the level of the development with made ground so that its foundations do not reach the archaeological horizon.

If preservation in situ is not feasible then PPG 16 permits preservation by record. This involves archaeological fieldwork to excavate and record finds and features (thereby destroying them). This may involve a full strip map and sample excavation, further trenching or an archaeological watching brief which involves an archaeologist monitoring groundworks for the new development and recording any finds or features revealed.

All forms of archaeological investigation undertaken through PPG 16 are funded by the developer through an extension of the Polluter Pays principle, although this is not made explicit in the document itself. The work is usually undertaken to satisfy a planning condition placed on an application for development although PPG16 prefers evaluation to take place in advance of any planning decision. A developer tenders for the work to be done and chooses an archaeological organisation to retain. The work is monitored by a curator, normally the County Archaeologist, who is nominated by the local planning authority as an advisor and who also identifies sites where archaeology might be threatened by development. Following submission of a satisfactory site report and demonstration that a site's archaeological potential has been properly safeguarded and/or recorded, the curator will usually advise that development can continue.

Curators maintain a Sites and Monuments Record or SMR, a database of known archaeological sites which is often used to inform decisions on archaeological potential.

The effect of PPG 16

PPG 16 has resulted in an explosion in archaeological fieldwork in the UK. Developer funding has led to dozens of archaeological organisations competing for work along with archaeological consultants working for developers to oversee projects. This has contributed to the growing professionalisation of archaeology from its more ad hoc earlier incarnation as Rescue Archaeology. Also, a wider variety of archaeological methods are now employed including surveys of large areas for the puposes of Historic Landscape Characterisation, deposit models and the production of regional archaeological research agendas.

Critics of PPG 16 argue that the commercialisation of UK archaeology has resulted in more work of lower quality being undertaken; there is a certainly a liability of unpublished site reports and homeless site archives awaiting resolution. The competition for work amongst archaeologists, and the fact that the developers funding them have no real use for their final product, also tends to drive prices down meaning that wages and conditions for archaeologists in the UK are generally far below the national average.

PPG 16 is only guidance information to planners and does not have the full force of law. Its precepts can be enforced through the Town and Country Planning Act and ultimate decisions on its implementation rest with the Secretary of State however, without full legal status it lacks the power and reach of measures safeguarding similar environmental issues which are enshrined in law, such as those concerning endangered species.

The theory of PPG 16

Theoretically, the philosophical approach of PPG 16 is strongly processualist, especially following the publication of the de facto guidance manual for UK developer-led archaeology, English Heritage's Management of Archaeological Projects (1991) , popularly known as MAP 2. This stresses the importance of evaluation, documentation and decision-making at each stage of a project based on empirical evidence and valid hypotheses.

Associated guidance and the future

A similar, though less stringent, guideline to PPG 16 exists for historic buildings and the wider historic environment called PPG 15. As of 2004 both documents are proposed to be combined into a single piece of guidance called a Planning Policy Statement

External link

• Planning Policy Guidance 16 text