The Merseyside Objective One Programme: Exemplar of Coherent City-regional Planning and Governance or Cautionary Tale?

This paper demonstrates how the Merseyside Objective One (MO1) programme provided a platform for sub-regional partners to develop a consensus about strategic economic development priorities and resulted in innovations and collective learning particularly in terms of community economic development and closer engagement of Higher Educational Institutions and the private sector. However, such gains were partially offset by over-complex management arrangements, blurred accountability, competition for resources and match funding problems. Devolution of responsibility for programme content and implementation under the new Structural Fund regulations should allow partners to address many of these shortcomings in the second MO1 programme. Tighter financial controls may, however, reduce room for manoeuvre and discourage experimentation.     

The Placing of Early Bronze Age Metalwork Deposits: New Evidence from Scotland

This paper considers the earliest metalwork hoards in Scotland, most of which have been found at conspicuous points in the landscape. The treatment of individual objects suggests that they had been carefully selected before they were deposited. Fieldwork, combined with computer reconstruction, shows that half the collections with adequate provenances come from places with direct views of the rising and setting sun at the solstices. The main emphasis seems to have been on midwinter.