Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendations.

Councillor Roberts introduced the report and explained that to maximise the impact of archive services in our communities and extend their reach across Flintshire and Denbighshire, and to address major deficiencies in the current archive buildings in Hawarden and Ruthin, both Flintshire and Denbighshire County Councils had a shared ambition to build a new, state of the art archive facility for North East Wales on the County Hall campus, next to Theatr Clwyd.

The facility would bring the Flintshire and Denbighshire collections together in a single location.  The new building would also act as a hub in ‘hub and spoke’ model, which would provide digital access to the archive materials through access points in libraries and other public buildings to widen participation across both Flintshire and Denbighshire.

The Chief Officer (Education and Youth) explained that NEWA, with the support of both Councils, submitted a bid to National Lottery Heritage Fund in February 2021 and narrowly missed out on being awarded funding. There was no negative feedback on the content and quality of the bid, and a new application was actively encouraged. That grant application had been submitted to and by March 2024 the Council would know if had been awarded grant funding or not.   

The move to a single building enabled NEWA to combine and better utilise its

resources, protects the archive services in both Councils and enabled the Council to deliver an exciting activity plan that would introduce archives to a wider and more diverse audience, making a positive contribution to the learning and wellbeing of our residents.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the submission of a further grant application to the NLHF Wales for £7.336m by North East Wales Archive (NEWA) on 15^th November 2023 be noted;

(b)       That the outcome of the grant application being known by the end of March 2024 be noted, and if the bid and the project are successful, then the service delivery model will be fully operational by the end of the financial year 2027-28; and

(c)        That the challenges faced by the project since 2021 and the ongoing developments, including the impact on the potential costs of the project in light of inflationary pressures in the current market conditions.