Agenda and draft minutes

To appoint a Chair for the Joint Archives Board – In accordance with the procedure rules set out in Article 11 Other Arangements.pdf of the Dorset Council Constitution, Cllr Andy Martin will be appointed as Chair of the Joint Archives Board until May 2028.

The BCP portfolio holder was entitled to Chair the Joint Archives Board as per the procedure rules.

The proposal was made by Cllr Beddow, seconded by Cllr Biggs.

Decision:

That Cllr Andy Martin be appointed as Chair of the committee until May 2028.

To appoint a Vice-Chair of the Joint Archives Board.

Proposed by Cllr Beddow, seconded by Cllr LePoidevin.

Decision:

That Cllr Biggs be appointed as Vice-Chair of the committee.

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies of absence.

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.

The minutes of the last meeting on the 4^th February 2026 were confirmed.

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 the 26^th June 2026.

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 26^th of June 2026.

Constitution - Dorset Council – Procedure Rule 13.

There were no questions from councillors.

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

Sam Johnston, Service Manager for Archives and Records introduced the report. The majority of the report was an update on the capital project which followed a decision made by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to allocate £603,000 to the Dorset History Centre Joint Archives Service for the capital project. An 18-month development phase had started for the project which would lead to a second submission to the National Lottery Heritage Fund to see the project through. The beginning of the project was pending approval by Cabinet as it was a key decision due to the amount of funding involved (over £500,000). Fundraising alongside trusts and foundations had started to reach the required match funding to cover the shortfall of £110,000. This project was a key piece of work that would be highlighted in the next service development plan.

Updates were included regarding the William Barnes and Thomas Hardy projects, the digitisation by Ancestry, meetings with the Jewish congregations regarding cataloguing their archives, and the Wessex Water archives.

A discussion was had regarding BCP’s new heritage strategy. It was hoped that the launch of the strategy would be an opportunity to talk about the history centre to give it more profile.

Concern was raised regarding Wessex Water’s lack of interest in archiving their records. A mid-point report had been sent to them in the hope that they would pick it up and repurpose the information.

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.

There are no exempt items scheduled for this meeting.

There was no exempt business.