I'd like to respond to members' concerns on the subject of the Coal
Authority's scoping study 'Access to Britain's Mining Heritage'.
May I begin by emphasizing that the Authority does *not* want to :
(1) collect any records or change their ownership or custody, whether
the documents are in public or private hands
(2) duplicate or undermine any existing efforts by others
(3) publish any information about anyone's holdings without their
permission.
The Authority *does* want to:
(1) promote some form of general access point, using the internet, to
the widest possible range of source materials for the mining of coal (and
perhaps other minerals) across the United Kingdom.
(2) work in partnership with the widest possible range of players to
make this happen
This is a big ambition that would take many years to achieve. Before
anything can happen the Authority needs to get a realistic idea of:
(1) how much there is
(2) in how many places
(3) and how much is already available
The scoping study is just that - an attempt to measure the challenge,
establish what has already been done, and come up with ideas on what to do
next. It is clear that any useful outcome will depend on working
co-operatively in voluntary partnership with a wide range of organisations
and individuals.
To avoid misunderstanding, may I stress that:
(1) the scoping survey is designed to produce a rough summary for
internal use to enable the Authority to discover how much is going on and
what still needs to be done. Nothing from the survey will be published in
any form without the express permission of the contributors. (In practice
published work is likely to come from subsequent developments.)
(2) we appreciate that the deadline is very short. (We now have a short
extension until 11 April). We are however, looking for intelligent
estimates and not for final polished figures, and we hope that most
contributors can fairly easily give us some guesstimates of the quantities
involved.
(3) we have not deliberately excluded anyone. We have been surprised
by the large range of potential partners and inevitably there will be some
we have not yet identified. If this survey process encourages others to
come forward so much the better. If the study does not include the full
number of possible partners it should be enough to get the overall
quantities roughly right.
(4) there is no obligation on anyone to take part, and those who do
respond to the survey are under no obligation to take any further part in
any programme that follows. We hope most of you will, but further
developments will follow consultation with all potential partners on how
their interests and the Authority's vision of a non-exclusive single point
of access to mining information can work together.
The Authority believes that it can make a helpful contribution to making
mining heritage information more widely and easily available, but fully
recognises that there may be some who choose not to take part. It will
fully respect any owner or custodian concerns on security and their consent
will always be needed for the release of information to the public.
I believe that NAMHO members have a lot to gain as potential users of a
successful project of this kind; I also believe they have a lot to contribute.
We are sure that there are many plans and activities that we have not yet
heard about, and we look forward to learning more through this preliminary
survey. If you feel you have something to offer but have not received a
questionnaire, do please let us know at [log in to unmask] If you
have concerns about any aspect of the project, please use the same address.
Adam Green
Consultant, Access to Britain's Mining Heritage
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Adam Green
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