Yes VBB, but think of it from the point of view of a typical bumpkin taxpayer, such as me:
It may have been scheduled earlier, but it was carried out in 2001, when the hole had appeared, and it virtually overlapped with the Skanska survey. In the circumstances, when they must have needed to tread carefully to avoid falling down a shaft, I think there's no denying that it's odd, to say the least, that the report went into speculation about possible inherent instability but not into the very real existence of bloody great collapsed shafts. Whatever the planned format of the exercise, surely it would have been amended to take account of what had happened?
This should be considered alongside the fact that there has STILL been no release of full details about the state of the voids, other than the assurance that "more research is needed but it appears stable" (Apart from the fact that that is a logical absurdity, it's also a nonsense - voids in chalk mixed with yellow clay are NOT stable. They do indeed "appear stable", but only until when they suddenly collapse!)
Anyway, the report does make oblique reference to other work, eg. it explains that they established a base station to provide "high quality location data supporting geophysical work carried out by others" and also that "all subsequent survey activity utilised this station".
On the other hand, perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps this was a long planned academic archaeological exercise like all their other surveys, and it went ahead in the interests of pure archaeology, oblivious to the collapses. In which case, what are they doing spending my money and fiddling whilst Silbury crumbles? It should have been delayed, the money and expertise should have gone into the urgent matter in hand. Even if only for considerations of bleedin' good taste!
Anyone care to guess how much the subsequent Skanska survey cost? (the one that we know nothing about except that they've long gone and "more investigation is needed"). Someone told me around £1 million, but who knows, EH have point blank refused to say.
