Joint Archives Board

14 November 2022

Capital Project Update

For Decision

Portfolio Holder:	Cllr L Beddow, Culture, Communities and Customer Services

Cllr B Dunlop, Cabinet member for Culture and Vibrant Places, BCP Council

Local Councillor(s):	All

Executive Director:	J Sellgren, Executive Director of Place

Report Author: Sam Johnston

Title:	Service Manager for Archives and Records

Tel:	01305-228929

Email:	sam.johnston@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk

Report Status: Public

Recommendation:

It is recommended that the Board:

Notes the progress made towards developing an application to the National Heritage Lottery Fund.

Notes the deployment of the JAS reserves to support work on the Lottery application.

Reason for Recommendation:

To ensure the viability of the capital project proposal; without professional buildings-relates support the project will not be fit for purpose.

Executive Summary

The storage repositories of the Dorset History Centre (DHC) in Dorchester home of the Joint Archives Service (JAS) are approaching capacity. Built in 1991, there remains relatively little space in which to house physical collections. Following an unsuccessful application for Heritage Lottery support in 2017, a new project is now afoot which it is intended will resource the building of new archive storage facilities and fund a major programme of public engagement. An application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund is in development and is scheduled to be submitted in May 2023.

Financial Implications

To date, spending of £45,000 on consultancy services has been approved from the JAS’s reserve. This should be sufficient to help shape the Stage 1 application to the Lottery. A significant capital contribution will additionally be required as match funding for the application to NLHF. This has been raised through Dorset Council’s capital funding programme. Funds would not be actually required until 2025 following a successful Stage 2 application to NLHF.

Well-being and Health Implications

None

Environmental implications

There are no immediate environmental implications. However, it should be noted that the structural elements of the project will be designed to be as energy efficient as is feasible and to use passive environmental management to the fullest extent possible. Provision has been made within the budget for a Passivhaus advisor to ensure that the most effective design is adopted.

Other Implications

None

Risk Assessment

Having considered the risks associated with this decision, the level of risk has been identified as:

Current Risk: Medium

Residual Risk: Medium

Equalities Impact Assessment

The JAS has completed a full EQIA. Areas for further consideration include working with younger people and with black and ethnic minority groups and religious minorities. Improved digital provision will also assist in providing greater access to collections for people living at some distance from Dorchester.

Appendices

Background Papers

2017 application documentation to Heritage Lottery Fund

Website of the National Lottery Heritage Fund

Footnote:

Issues relating to financial, legal, environmental, economic and equalities implications have been considered and any information relevant to the decision is included within the report.

Background and context

1.1 The Joint Archives Service (JAS) has had a long-standing business requirement to extend the storage space it has at Dorset History Centre (DHC) for physical archives. Although it is inevitable that in the long-term, the transfer of archives to the service will become a largely digital transaction, there is likely to be a lengthy period where a ‘mixed economy’ operates. Built in 1991 with predicted storage space for 25 years of accruals, DHC is now approaching capacity. Around 3,500 vacant box spaces remain with over 500 having been filled since the last report to the Board in March 2022.

1.2	Work to address this long-anticipated need began in 2012 with an options appraisal and a feasibility study. Following an unsuccessful approach to the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2017, Local Government Reorganisation in 2019 and the Covid pandemic, the service is now moving forward with a new application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF). This has been confirmed by two important developments:

The approval in May 2022 by the Cabinets of both BCP and Dorset Councils of a refreshed and re-purposed Inter-Authority Agreement on Archives. This re-affirmed the rationale and support within both councils to continue their joint funding and governance of the JAS. It also clarified that capital funding for the project needed to be provided by the authority which owned the Dorset History Centre, namely Dorset Council.

An encouraging response in May 2022 to the Expression of Interest submitted by the JAS to the London and South Committee of the NLHF. The latter provided positive feedback to the project proposal and gave an explicit invitation to submit an application within a 12-month period – i.e. by May 2023.

2.	Preparation of application

Since May the JAS has been working on a new project plan which will form the basis of its application to NLHF. The approach to the NLHF consists of a two-stage application process and will take several years to achieve. The working title of the project is Parchment and Pixels – building resilience for Dorset’s archives. The ambition is to focus as much on the digital dimension to archives as to the physical with a particular emphasis on digital preservation.

As part of the project development, the service has put together a short film detailing its aspiration and themes. The film is narrated by broadcaster Kate Adie who is a patron of the Dorset Archives Trust. The film can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUy_pyKaBCs

2.3	The key elements of the project are:

The provision of a new two-storey repository block which will provide c. 30 years of additional accommodation for physical archives including photographs, film and large or ‘outsize’ items.

Improvements to the public areas of DHC to include re-designed, flexible spaces for a wide range of potential users and a new public entrance to make the building and its contents more intuitive and welcoming.

A major programme of public engagement activity focussed upon collections and people – and bringing the two together. Key drivers are likely to be:

Opening up more collections for research, leisure and enjoyment

Telling more of the stories of under-represented communities

Ensuring archives are more visible, both physically and digitally

Raising the profile of digital assets and educating the wider public in how to safeguard digital materials

2.4	Competition for Lottery funding is intense and the project will need to clearly meet the Fund’s outcomes, most importantly its mandatory outcome a wider range of people will be involved in heritage. It is vital therefore that the public engagement work that is programmed connects to new audiences and will encourage different and sustainable approaches to engaging with archives.

2.5	The JAS team has taken advice from various successful capital archive projects (Cornwall, Plymouth, Gloucestershire) and will continue to learn from places which have recently received Lottery investment (Suffolk, Staffordshire).

Consultancy support

3.1	Following the endorsement and funding allocation by the Board at its last meeting in March, a brief for consultancy services to support the Lottery application process was advertised. After scoring and evaluation this was awarded to Julia Holberry Associates. Julia and her team supported the JAS in its 2015 Bankes archive project so knows the service well. A project initiation meeting with Julia and her colleague Christina Dixon was held in mid-August and work has now started to bring the project planning. This involves the interviewing of key stakeholders, the hosting of 2 focus groups and a public survey. Work will intensify towards the submission period and a large amount of planning and collation will need to take place before a suitably prepared application can be submitted.

Architectural and property services

4.1	As part of the project planning, the JAS has engaged with Dorset Council’s Property Services team. Most of the professional services required by the DHC project will need to be procured via the council’s Comensura portal. To this end, a review of the previous feasibility work was carried out which in turn led to the formation of a brief. Property colleagues then took this out via Comensura and various quotations have been received for architectural, quantity surveying, mechanical, electrical and structural engineering and project management.

4.2	The costs for these services will be c. £25,000. Senior officer approval for this spend, drawing upon the services reserves has been received and the work commissioned. Given the current unpredictable state of inflation and raw material costs a major challenge for the consultants will be to gauge the likely costs of construction in 2025 when structural work on the project will potentially begin.

Timeframe

5.1	The application to NLHF will need to be submitted through the online portal by early May 2023. Prior to this, the application form and all supporting evidence will need to be prepared, collated and cross-checked.

5.2	It is anticipated that at times various JAS staff will need to focus almost exclusively on the application to ensure that it meets the high standard expected. However, Julia Holberry and Associates will provide support and scrutiny to ensure that the project complies with NLHF expectations and that it meets the necessary outcomes.

Next steps

The JAS team is about to commit a significant part of its staffing resource to the shaping and development of the capital project and of the Lottery application that will ensue. The project is the clear priority for the JAS in the coming months and years as the service’s sustainability as a collecting body depends on successfully delivering an expanded and improved Dorset History Centre.

Sam Johnston

Service Manager for Archives and Records

October 2022