English Heritage to Heritage Action on Scheduling

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I was interested to read the response by English Heritage to the points recently raised by Heritage Action on the process of Scheduling and some of the aberrations and failures of the system. While applauding their decision to appear to be making an effort to be answerable to the public for their conservation policies, I was particularly disturbed to read this:

While scheduling is, was and will remain an important way of protecting archaeological sites, there are other ways of protecting archaeology beyond designation. The partnership of local authorities and communities is crucial to the protection of sites through local schemes of designation and recognition of importance. Such local schemes are often the only viable solution to the protection of archaeological sites discovered as a consequence of the development / planning system, of which only a small number of such sites have ever been suitable for inclusion on the schedule. 

Of course "local government designation" does not have the legal clout of the scheduling system, and cannot be used, for example to effectively protect any - known or unknown -  archaeological sites from looting by artefact hunters, for example those with metal detectors, whether by day or by night. Referring HA to the latter is simply dodging the issue as far as providing effective protection is concerned. But dodging the issues of current policies on artefact hunting and collecting is what British archaeology and heritage management (I use the term loosely) is all about.