Update - Herefordshire's archive office move get thumbs up

12:50pm Wednesday 9th January 2013 in News

How the archive centre at Rotherwas will look How the archive centre at Rotherwas will look

A NEW chapter in Herefordshire’s history books can begin after plans for an £8 million archive centre were approved this morning.

The county’s archive and records service will move to a new home in Rotherwas after Herefordshire Council branded the current Harold Street base “not fit for purpose”.

The new venue on Fir Tree Lane will also boast a dedicated educational room and improved access for the public.

Local member Councillor Peter Sinclair-Knipe told members of the council’s planning committee he was staggered at the amount of material that is stored by the service.

A recent 18-month restoration project saw more than 100,000 individual items checked, almost 4,000 wills wrapped and around five kilometres of archive tape used.

But the move wasn’t unanimously supported by the committee.

Coun Felicity Norman raised concern the new home would be out-of-town and hard to get to.  

 

Comments(12)

bobby47 says...
9:19am Fri 4 Jan 13

Lovely! Just what I needed. Yet another Council building.
And to sweeten it up they're providing a space for the public to use for educational needs.
If ever there was a place to go to learn something new for the day, Fir Tree Lane, miles from anywhere is just the place to build it.
Mind, another option could have been to place all the non historical documents on a computer disc.
Im losing the will to work my diaphragm and breath in and out.
We are bloody done for.

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Roger J says...
9:57am Fri 4 Jan 13

Just goes to prove they ain't happy unless they've got something to WASTE OUR MONEY on.

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TwoWheelsGood says...
10:09am Fri 4 Jan 13

Well, on the one hand its good to see the Council investing in a high quality public resource AND using local professionals to design it. On the other hand, its contrary to the Councils own policies in that its sited on employment land. It means car journeys to access it. It is also sited in flood zone 2, with flooding no doubt having a devastating effect on the precious artefacts. In summary - right building, wrong place.

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Vic Vomitello says...
10:57am Fri 4 Jan 13

Insiders say the council hand is being forced because inspectors have lambasted the council for not looking after precious artifacts adequately. They have put our heritage at risk for years. The best solution would probably be to amalgate the care of artifacts with a neighbouring council such as Worcestershire as they would be better looked after and the council could save £8m it cannot afford in building new premises to house them (although surely there are enough empty or unused premises in the council that could serve the purpose).

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Vic Vomitello says...
10:58am Fri 4 Jan 13

Insiders say the council hand is being forced because inspectors have lambasted the council for not looking after precious artifacts adequately. They have put our heritage at risk for years. The best solution would probably be to amalgamate the care of artifacts with a neighbouring council such as Worcestershire as they would be better looked after and the council could save £8m it cannot afford in building new premises to house them (although surely there are enough empty or unused premises in the county that could serve the purpose).

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Herefordian07 says...
1:41pm Fri 4 Jan 13

If the council wasn't demolishing the recently and expensively refurbished Garrick House they could use the building to re-house the Archive Office,
but of course this would require imagination which we all know the council and cabinet members seem to lack! It appears that £8 miilion is a mere trifle when they are spending our hard earned and heavily taxed cash. Or instead of paying £10 miilion pounds to retiring executive council members who have been well/overpaid for years, the money could go to such worthy causes.

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richybeaver says...
10:13am Wed 9 Jan 13

Why is the Harold Street site deemed 'not fit for purpose'? I have used it regularly over a number of years and it seems just fine to me.

Presumably councillors are the only ones to have special knowledge of fitness for purpose issues.

Who is pumping (or pimping) them with misleading or biased information?

Surely it would be better to bring out of storage all the hidden artefacts currently languishing at Friar Street - rarely seen except by a few lucky schoolchildren - and properly display them somewhere 'fit for purpose'?

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Roger J says...
3:22pm Wed 9 Jan 13

This project I'm sure will require many more "secret council meetings" when there are probably plenty of empty buildings which could be adapted for a great deal less than £8m which the council don't have to waste

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nickt2635 says...
4:12pm Wed 9 Jan 13

I would have thought the recently refurbished Garrick house was ideal, middle of town, bus station opposite! My elderly mother uses the records office very regularly, but if it goes to Rotherwas she won't be able to.

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WYSIATI says...
4:30pm Wed 9 Jan 13

It is possible that there are very good reasons for doing this in this way and now - I wouldn't be surprised if the way that historical material has been stored could be a lot better or that after a long time with little attention there is a need to do it better.

Doing it properly is likely to cost a chunk of money and doing it badly would be costly, temporary and unsatisfactory.

I do hope that the money is not coming at the expense of key services when adults services are creaking and children's services are being cut to make up the shortfalls. It would be good to hear that spelled out by those who know and not leave us all to guess - perhaps the HT can do the legwork and actually find this stuff out - news and unbiased analysis - now there's a new idea

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wyesider says...
4:44pm Wed 9 Jan 13

The Record Office in Harold Street is a pretty useful resource and I have used it on a number of occasions for research into family history. The building seems quite adequate and the staff are brilliant.
If we need a new centre where is the £8 million coming from?
The council is "cash-strapped" yet seems to find money for new projects, but is cutting services in some areas.
As Wysiati stressed - it would be very useful to know how this money is to be raised.

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Werintrouble says...
4:01pm Thu 10 Jan 13

Im a new poster and its took me a long time to make a decision and come and join you. Could someone tell me why some of your Posters have gone. Have they been banned or what?
As for this building. It's a waste of our time and money which means the Council will jump straight into this daft programme and take no notice of us all.

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