Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers (ALGAO) SIG - annual report to LGA Board 2025

• Lead Officer: Ian Leete
• Email: [email protected]
• Address: Cambridgeshire County Council, SAC1301 Sackville House, Sackville Way, Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, CB23 6HL
• Telephone: 07717 426713
• Website: www.algao.org.uk

• Bedford Borough Council
• Boston Borough Council
• Buckinghamshire Council
• Cambridgeshire County Council
• Central Bedfordshire
• Cheshire (Cheshire West and Chester/Cheshire East)
• Chichester District Council
• City of Coventry
• City of York Council
• Colchester Borough Council
• Cornwall Council
• Dartmoor National Park
• Derbyshire County Council
• Devon County Council
• Dorset Council
• Dudley M.B.C.
• Durham County Council
• East Berkshire (Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham unitary authorities)
• East Sussex County Council
• Essex County Council
• Exeter City Council
• Exmoor National Park
• Gloucester City
• Gloucestershire County Council
• Greater London
• Greater Manchester Archaeological Advisory Service
• Hampshire County Council
• Herefordshire Council
• Hertfordshire County Council
• Humber Archaeology Partnership (Kingston upon Hull and East Riding councils)
• Isle of Wight Council
• Kent County Council
• Lake District National Park Authority
• Lancashire County Council
• Lincolnshire County Council
• Merseyside
• Milton Keynes Council
• New Forest National Park
• Newcastle City Council and Tyne & Wear
• Norfolk County Council
• North Lincolnshire Council
• North Northamptonshire Council
• North Somerset Council
• North York Moors National Park
• North Yorkshire Council
• Northumberland County Council
• Northumberland National Park
• Nottinghamshire County Council
• Oxford City Council
• Oxfordshire County Council
• Peak District National Park
• Peterborough City Council
• Plymouth City Council
• Shropshire Council
• South Gloucestershire Council
• South Kesteven District Council
• South West Heritage Trust
• South Yorkshire Archaeology Service
• Southampton City Council
• Southend-on-Sea City Council
• Southwark Council
• Staffordshire County Council
• Stoke on Trent City Council
• Suffolk County Council
• Surrey County Council
• Tees Archaeology (Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees)
• Warwickshire County Council
• West Berkshire Council
• West Northamptonshire
• West Sussex County Council
• West Yorkshire Archaeology Service
• Westmorland and Furness Council
• Wiltshire Council
• Winchester City Council
• Wolverhampton City Council
• Worcester City Council
• Worcestershire County Council
• Yorkshire Dales National Park
• In Wales, Heneb (The Welsh Trust for Archaeology) is a member along with Brecon Beacons, Snowdonia and Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authorities.

ALGAO continues to have four key objectives:

• To provide a strong voice for local authority historic environment services and promote these within local government to strengthen and develop their role within local government in delivering local, regional and national government policy.
• To ensure that local government historic environment services are included within policy (national, regional and local) for culture and education.
• To ensure that policy aims to improve the sustainable management of the historic environment.
• To promote development of high standards in the historic environment profession

• ‘Representing Local Govt’: we are present at most for a, panels and discussions in the heritage sector, putting our voice across and emphasising the uniqueness of local authorities. This has become even more critical with imminent devolution and reorganisation, and we have recently commissioned an analysis of this from our perspective.
• ‘Improving Local Govt’: ALGAO supports officers and members, providing training and guidance on historic environment matters. We also work with other sector agencies on broader skills issues. This will become more important with the introduction of statutory Historic Environment Records, where we are working with MHCLG, Historic England and others on how this is implemented and funded. The recent Report on Local Authority Staffing has identified a concerning drop in FTE from 279.9 in 2023 to 248.4 in 2024. This needs further investigation.
• ‘Innovation’: We would highlight our engagement with the wider heritage sector and the renewables industry around developing a good practice guidance for archaeology and solar. Furthermore we have engaged with the Forestry Commission on the use of data in their mapping.
• Our report on ‘Archaeology in Development Management’ emphasised the financial and operational benefits to local authorities and developers of an effective historic environment service, and we are in the process of updating that report.

• England Exec has met four times during the year. Meetings have continued to be held online due to maximise attendance and reduce travel and meeting expenses. As part of regular business the committee receives regular update reports from the subcommittees for Historic Environment Records, Planning and Legislation, and Countryside. Other specialist subcommittees (e.g. Maritime) meet ‘as and when’.
• The Executive continues to maintain an overview of service provision and potential threats to historic environment services across the country. The work has often been in collaboration with other sector bodies, mostly with the Chartered Institute for Archaeology and the Council for British Archaeology.
• The Executive have been looking at a better system for flagging upcoming consultations. Responses were submitted for the Law Commission burial and cremation consultation (jointly with ALGAO Cymru) and the Government paper on brownfield passports.
• Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
• + Levelling Up & Regeneration Act: Exec continued to support adoption of the Act and Warwickshire CC is closely involved with the development of statutory Historic Environment Records arising from it. We, with The Heritage Alliance, submitted a written question on government plans to implement statutory HERs.
• + Devolution & LGR: we have commenced a project to assess the problems and possibilities for local authority archaeological services to advise the ongoing process of devolution and LGR, including where these services are a best fit. This will supplement our earlier ‘Models of Delivery’ project that identified success factors for a service.
• + Solar and Planning: we have been gathering information and case studies from members to support discussions about the impact of solar developments on archaeology and evidence of the success or failure of techniques in finding archaeological remains. England representatives attended a recent workshop organised by CIfA involving representatives from the Solar industry and across the sector.
• Heritage Alliance Spatial Planning Advocacy Group: Kent CC attends this group on behalf of ALGAO England. It has been useful avenue for information/influence on Government plans and for shared information. Lake District NP attends the Rural Heritage Advocacy Group of the same organisation
• Historic England – high-level liaison meetings with Historic England have not taken place this year. Exec is keen to reestablish these moving forward.
• ALGAO is represented on the Historic England ‘Future of Archaeological Archives’ panel. This is working on the proposal for a National Centre for Archaeological Archives that this year has produced guidance for establishing Transfer of Title and a projection for archive material coming down the pipeline. The former is a critical piece of work for unblocking access to the public benefits of archaeological excavations.
• DCMS Heritage Council: ALGAO is on the circulation list but we understand this forum may be discontinued.
• All Party Parliamentary Group on Archaeology: This has reconstituted and ALGAO is a member of the reference group
• ADEPT – Cambridgeshire CC continues to sit on the ‘Natural Capital and Heritage’ working group, which reports to the wider Environment Board at ADEPT and allows us to integrate the historic and natural environment
• Portable Antiquities Scheme Steering Group: Lincolnshire CC represents us on this body.