Shropshire Council

Planning archaeology

Curatorial advice

The Historic Environment team provides archaeological curatorial advice to our Development Management team, as well as to Telford and Wrekin Council. Our advice is made in relation to the National Planning Policy Framework (often referred to simply as the NPPF) and the Historic Environment Good Practice Advice in Planning Notes (produced by Historic England), which replaced the PPS 5 Practice Guide in 2015.

Where an archaeological condition has been placed on a planning consent the Archaeology Service will be able to advise you on what you'll be required to do in order to discharge the condition. We're also responsible for providing formal approval of archaeological 'written schemes of investigation' (WSI).

Archaeological briefs

We can supply you with a full written brief for a programme of archaeological work at a cost of £400 (+ VAT), which will include the cost of two monitoring visits during the site evaluation work. Complex sites may require more than two monitoring visits, for which an additional charge of £100 (+ VAT) per visit will be applied. The brief will provide all the necessary information to allow any appointed archaeological contractor to quickly produce a 'written scheme of investigation' (WSI) at minimal cost.

Appointing an archaeological contractor

We don't recommend any specific archaeological contractors, but would refer you to the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA), which maintains a list of Registered Organisations providing archaeological services.