Plans for £15m Archive Visitor Centre in Hertfordshire highlighted in council's budget proposals

Plans for a £15million Archive Visitor Centre in Hertfordshire have been highlighted as part of the county council’s budget-setting process.

Currently the council’s extensive archives – which include historical documents, maps, plans and photographs – are stored in the basement of County Hall, in Hertford.

But estimates suggest that within five years the growing collection will be too large for the space available.

And there are also concerns that the existing facility cannot meet the required ‘modern standards’ for archiving materials.

Plans for the new Archive Visitor Centre were highlighted at a cross-Party meeting on Wednesday, January 26, held to scrutinise the education, libraries and lifelong learning budget proposals.

The plans were included in budget proposals last year (2020/21). And councillors were told that since then a possible site for the centre – that was not disclosed – had been identified.

They were told that the proposed building would meet ‘passive haus’ standards – in line with the council’s commitment to be net zero carbon ‘in its own operations’ by 2030.

And they heard that discussions were ongoing with the National Lottery Heritage Fund on the potential for matched funding.

Making the case for the investment, the budget document points to the 13 cubic metres of materials that are collected by the county council each year.

And it says that in order to retain its ‘archive accreditation’ it would be essential that progress was made on the development of the building in 2022/23.

It states: “During the next few years, it will be necessary to take steps to secure the long-term storage and accommodation needs of Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies.

“The service is currently accruing physical archives at a rate of an average of 13 cubic metres per year.

“Current estimates project that there is sufficient space for archive collections for approximately 4-5 years.

“There are also challenges in maintaining the quality of the current accommodation at County Hall, to ensure it is fit for the purpose of storing of archive materials to required standards and delivering modern archive services.

“In 2018, a feasibility study took place to specify the requirement of a new building, including investigating recently developed archive storage buildings nationally.

“To retain Archive Accreditation, it is essential that progress in made in 2022/23 on the development of the new building.”

At the meeting councillors questioned whether the funding proposed in the budget – based on estimates from 2018 – would still be enough for the project.

And – after highlighting the inclusion of plans for a bid for National Lottery Heritage funding – councillors pointed to some uncertainties that they said may need to be reflected in the budget.

The scrutiny ‘evidence gathering’ session is part of the county council’s budget-setting process, which will end with a meeting of the full council on February 22.