Archaeology at Bicester Business Park Zone B Strategy Document 2

The purpose of this report is to review the situation with regard to archaeology so that a strategy and a work programme can be formulated and implemented. She requires a further 10 trenches to be excavated. In my view these are needed to be able to plan and cost the inevitable next stage which is an archaeological excavation. Modern day archaeological excavation consists of 1. stripping the top soil and immediate sub-soil 2. mapping the archaeological features present 3. excavating a sample of the features found 4. producing a report of what has been discovered. This is called a strip map sample exercise. I note after the strip map sample exercise the top soil has been removed which reduces building costs but there will be soft spots etc which have to be taken into account. At this stage it is a guess as to what will be found and thus what the costs will be and how long it will take. My standard tactic for the last thirty years has been for the main archaeological fieldwork to commence as soon as there is a resolution to grant planning permission. Above all else I avoid archaeology being on the critical path of the development. The cost of the archaeology work is a small fraction of the actual costs that are incurred when extensive archaeological work has to be undertaken. These hidden costs are many and varied and thus I try and avoid watching briefs, because these costs are much higher, as far as possible.