The presentation, interpretation and use of heritage in the community can be seen to be limited by the legal framework within which archaeology and hertage protection exits.

It can be difficult to see how connections between the community and the  rigid framework of policies,laws and designations governing heritage can exist especially when that framework appears at first to pay little regard to the modern community and benefits they can draw from a heritage ‘resource’.

We have to ask ourselves are the systems we are working in serving only to protect the heritage or are they protecting the heritage to serve the communities in which that heritage exists? If the answer is that the system only serves to protect the heritage then is that really a problem, is it really the job of an archaeological site, listed building or artefact to rejuvenate and regenerate a failing community?

Perhaps the question is actually should there ever be a mutually beneficial relationship between heritage, law and the community, and if so how far can that relationship go before one part suffers at the expense of another?