The imposition of a smaller PAS can hardly be taken as a compliment. Some at least in Whitehall are no longer accepting the unalloyed “good news” rhetoric. Not before time. 70% of detectorists not complying with Best Practice after 17 years of “education and persuasion” speaks for itself and the tipping point may well have been PAS’s recent acknowledgement of that reality.

We’ve always maintained PAS hasn’t been frank enough – with detectorists, landowners, stakeholders and the Government and that a more muscular outreach would definitely have yielded better results. Our simple thesis has been that praise for those who behave doesn’t encourage those who don’t, they simply quote the praise to landowners. Who can possibly deny it?

Now there’s a chance for the new management to break that cycle. Let the new PAS tell every detectorist, every landowner and every stakeholder that bad practice in metal detecting isn’t a matter for voluntary choice. It damages everyone’s interest and is therefore socially reprehensible.  Accordingly, here are ten truths we believe PAS should publicly say to all detectorists.

ten truths.

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More Heritage Journal views on artefact collecting
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