Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies.

To disclose any pecuniary, other registrable or non-registrable interest as set out in the adopted Code of Conduct. In making their disclosure councillors are asked to state the agenda item, the nature of the interest and any action they propose to take as part of their declaration.

If required, further advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm the minutes of the last meeting held on the 5^th of November 2025.

The minutes of the last meeting held on the 5^th of November 2025 were confirmed and signed.

Representatives of town or parish councils and members of the public who live, work, or represent an organisation within the Dorset Council area are welcome to submit either 1 question or 1 statement for each meeting.  You are welcome to attend the meeting in person or via MS Teams to read out your question and to receive the response.   If you submit a statement for the committee this will be circulated to all members of the committee in advance of the meeting as a supplement to the agenda and appended to the minutes for the formal record but will not be read out at the meeting. The first 8 questions and the first 8 statements received from members of the public or organisations for each meeting will be accepted on a first come first served basis in accordance with the deadline set out below.  Further information read Public Participation - Dorset Council  

All submissions must be emailed in full to [email protected] by 8.30am on Friday 30^th January. 

When submitting your question or statement please note that:  

·         You can submit 1 question or 1 statement. 

·         A question may include a short pre-amble to set the context.  

·         It must be a single question and any sub-divided questions will not be permitted. 

·         Each question will consist of no more than 450 words, and you will be given up to 3 minutes to present your question.  

·         When submitting a question please indicate who the question is for (e.g., the name of the committee or Portfolio Holder)  

·         Include your name, address, and contact details.  Only your name will be published but we may need your other details to contact you about your question or statement in advance of the meeting.  

·         Questions and statements received in line with the council’s rules for public participation will be published as a supplement to the agenda.  

·         All questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting.  

There were no questions from the public.

To receive questions submitted by councillors.

Councillors can submit up to two valid questions at each meeting and sub divided questions count towards this total.   Questions and statements received will be published as a supplement to the agenda and all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting.

The submissions must be emailed in full to [email protected] by 08:30am on Friday 30^th January.

Constitution - Dorset Council – Procedure Rule 13.

There were no questions from councillors.

To consider a report from the Service Manager for Archives and Records.

The Service manager for Archives and Records presented the report.

The recommended budget still stood which was presented in the November meeting. The report was to update the committee on the recent activities of the archives service. The new agreement with Ancestry would increase income with additional funding provided from a small saving from an employee reducing their hours.

There had been significant attrition to the repairs and maintenance budget. The reserve was £55,000 but was likely to be reduced to no more that £22,000 due to costs involving maintenance of the building.  The £50k reserve had been allocated as match funding towards the Lottery application should it be successful. The service would now need to source that funding from elsewhere. The new agreement with Ancestry would save about £10,000 for each council through the provision of free access in both Dorset and BCP libraries once the project is completed. This would last for ten years.

The application to the National Lottery Heritage fund was submitted for the 12^th of Nov deadline and the result of the application should be known in roughly four weeks from this meeting. There was set to be a development phase and a delivery phase. The delivery phase would include the new building. The total cost of the project being £4.7m. If the project was approved it would be a five year undertaking. If it was rejected, then they would need to consider the feedback from NLHF and look to see if it would be worth going back for another application. There would be a new service development plan brought to the next meeting.

It was explained that obtaining the Ancestry contract had been a lengthy process with a 70% positive response from consultees. There was a space identified within DHC where people could do the work to digitise the archives, which would result in additional clicks and income for the service. The Hardy project had been fully completed, and the 11 notebooks had been digitised and are available via the catalogue which was ready to be promoted to the public.

The Dorset Archives Trust were set to start a fundraiser to raise the £48,000 to catalogue the collection of Sylvia Townsend Warner and would be seeking to raise funds through trusts and foundations. There was work being undertaken in Bournemouth with the Jewish congregation, and there was a meeting with members of the congregation a week prior to the panel meeting. There was evidence of success from similar projects in areas such as Sheffield and the congregation seemed engaged with the collection of these archives. The Wessex Water archives was going to be made accessible through an ongoing externally funded project. There are 700 boxes of material and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 76.

To consider any items of business which the Chairman has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4) b) of the Local Government Act 1972. The reason for the urgency shall be recorded in the minutes.

There were no urgent items.

To move the exclusion of the press and the public for the following item in view of the likely disclosure of exempt information within the meaning of paragraph x of schedule 12 A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended). The public and the press will be asked to leave the meeting whilst the item of business is considered.

There are no exempt items scheduled for this meeting.

There was no exempt business.