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Pre-Planning Heritage Advice

Our experienced Consultancy team offer support from the inception of a project. We will identify and manage heritage issues to inform project design and minimise cost.

The key to managing heritage risk is to consider the implications that heritage can have as early as possible in the development process.

The best time for this is often before a client has even purchased land earmarked for development or during master planning.

PCA recommends the early risk approach because it enables our clients to:

  • Gain a detailed understanding of a site’s heritage issues and implications;
  • Reduce or even remove a site’s heritage risk – for example, through foundation redesign, thus avoiding areas of high potential;
  • Make suitable provision for heritage risk in their budgets and programme;
  • Maintain control of the programme and cost of heritage;
  • Gain control over a site’s heritage issues and negotiate on an equal footing with the Local Planning Authority or their advisers.

PCA is committed to guiding its clients from the early stages of the development process, through planning consent to the discharge of relevant planning conditions. We undertake all negotiation with the Archaeological Advisors to Local Authorities and national bodies such as Historic England and CADW on behalf of our clients, to ensure that our clients’ requirements are fairly represented.

Click here for useful links and selected national and regional heritage guidance.

Desk-Based Heritage Assessment

Desk Based Assessments are usually commissioned by our clients in support of their planning application or as part of an Environmental Impact Assessment. They can also be used as confidential documents to determine the level of heritage risk upon a site prior to land-purchase or during master planning.

The objective of the Assessment is to provide sufficient information concerning the level of risk that heritage poses to a development and to provide recommendations for dealing with it.

This enables our clients to take into consideration the potentially critical impact of heritage on a development’s cost and programme.

Environmental Impact Assessment

We have produced numerous Heritage Environmental Statement chapters to Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and Cultural Heritage Chapters. We can readily enhance your team by providing a heritage specialist as required.

An archaeological or cultural heritage chapter for Environmental Statements (ES) relies on the findings of the supporting baseline desk-based assessment, any non-intrusive surveys, for example geophysics (generally included as appendices) to determine the levels of archaeological potential on a site and the impact and effects that the proposed development will have on the heritage resource.

Rapid Site Appraisal

Rapid Site Appraisal does exactly as described; a rapid assessment of the archaeological and built heritage risk of a possible development site. This document is produced quickly, providing our client with an understanding of the heritage risks that could potentially affect a possible development site.

They are not as detailed as Desk-Based Assessments and, therefore, are not suitable for supporting a planning application. They are useful in determining the heritage risks when considering land purchase or sale.

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