The new PAS (Lava PAS) has a head start on its predecessor, it can build on the latter's negative experience with artefact hunters. Heritage Action has published 'Ten truths the new PAS must make public' and there seems no scope for argument about them. Or at least if the Lava-PAS disagree, their audience", the stakeholder (and paying) public deserve to hear from them why.
70% of detectorists not complying with Best Practice after 17 years of “education and persuasion” speaks for itself and the tipping point may well have been PAS’s recent acknowledgement of that reality. We’ve always maintained PAS hasn’t been frank enough – with detectorists, landowners, stakeholders and the Government and that a more muscular outreach would definitely have yielded better results. Our simple thesis has been that praise for those who behave doesn’t encourage those who don’t, they simply quote the praise to landowners. Who can possibly deny it? Now there’s a chance for the new management to break that cycle.The ten truths are short and to the point, even the most severely literacy-challenged metal detector should be able to understand them.
Although, explaining it to detectorists isn't the main issue, it's explaining it to landowners and the public (and having the resolve to do so despite the threats to stage recording strikes if it happens. "It's an attack on the hobby, innit? PAS should be supporting us!")
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