Archaeology, Geology, Landscape and Archaeological Sites Listing Group

Leader: Dr John Renouf

Aims

The intentions of the Group are the identification of issues affecting the good management of the archaeological and landscape heritage of Jersey and the promotion of measures to ensure that potentially, or actually harmful, activities are addressed. Wherever possible proposals will be made to assist in the resolution of problems.

Current Activities

Archaeological Officer: In the current year the Group has continued to press for the appointment of a fully qualified archaeologist onto the staff of the planning office.

This is to begin to address the failures of the past 40 years in the face of major building works to have a routine archaeological assessment of sites possibly or likely to have remains. The example of Guernsey, with its major discoveries over the same period, will always stand as a reproach to those in Jersey who have failed to take action.

There are encouraging signs that the present Minister is keen to make an appointment but nothing has yet materialised.

Planning and the Scheduling of Archaeological Sites : The Group has involved itself in commenting upon the list of sites that the Planning Department wish to have formally recognised as deserving of scheduling either for their known value or for their potential to yield archaeological remains - monuments or artefacts. Four issues in particular have been highlighted.

The first is that most of the known sites are only marginally at risk and so, while seeming an important advance, does little more than secure them an official recognition.

The second is much more significant: The list of potential sites are many and would appear to a non-archaeologist to be eminently sound. However, the list overall has been poorly researched and there are a significant number that should probably not be on it. The scheduling of such sites will only create useless, frustrating and costly activities not just for the developers but also for the planning department itself.