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Joint EH/Cheshire County Council funding has enabled a three-year post to be established from June 1996, within the County's Environmental Planning Service to provide archaeological advice to the county and local planning authorities. In the first year, the Archaeological Officer (Development Control) has monitored nearly 7,000 planning applications, over 10% of which have been checked against the Cheshire SMR. 89 of these generated a response to the local planning authority indicating the potential presence of archaeological remains and advising evaluations and/or watching briefs. Nearly 400 other strategic consultations or consultations from developers, consultants, and contractors have also been dealt with. 28 briefs have been written for archaeological work and over 50 development-led fieldwork projects have been undertaken in the county
Significant fieldwork projects have included the recording of a section of the King Street Roman Road, near Warrington, between Middlewich and Wilderspool. At Middlewich itself (Roman Salinae), notable finds have included remains of an industrial nature, probably associated with salt making activity, found during a series of watching briefs during residential development to the east of the town centre. Quantities of ceramic material included three complete vessels, including a fine, Gaulish samian cup of second to third-century AD date; This area has also recently produced chance finds of fragments of lead salt-pan. Evaluation in advance of a new sports pitch in Upton, north of Chester, identified the south-western corner of a Roman camp, one of several in this area recently discovered by aerial photography. Samples from the base of the enclosure ditch produced a radiocarbon date of cal AD 120. Monitoring of development has also provided valuable information regarding the survival of medieval remains within the historic towns of Knutsford and Congleton. The former produced well-preserved deposits containing pottery and glass datable to a period of occupation spanning the fifteenth to the eighteenth-centuries, and organic material, including leather and wood, survived well in the moist soils.