Government signals mass metal detecting rallies to be banned – at last!

It seems the dislike of large rallies by PAS and others has finally fed into Government thinking. See the current Consultation about a post-Brexit environmental land management system. It contains aspirations that would make holding large rallies impossible:

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1.)“The system will help us to deliver our manifesto commitment to be the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than we inherited it”. Yet it’s beyond all denial that mass detecting rallies impoverish the historic environment, not enhance it.

2.) It will also include “a more effective application of the ‘polluter pays’ principle”  which indicates farmers who damage the natural environment will have to pay – and so will those who allow others to damage the historic environment.

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Soon to be mere history? Two thousand paying artefact hunters helping themselves on archaeologically sensitive fields alongside the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire. About time too?

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More Heritage Journal views on artefact collecting

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