How you can help keep our archives

We need to stop our wonderful heritage going from Bury St Edmunds and West Suffolk forever. We need to do this immediately because the decision will be made very soon, February 15. You can help in a number of ways:

Online Petition

A new online petition is now available at ‘ipetitions.com’ . Follow the link below. After you have signed you will get asked for a contribution to support such petitions but you can ignore that or select ‘no thanks’.

Please note: the online petition is now closed. It gathered over 1,000 signatures and comments.

Paper Petition

The Bury Society has also organised a paper petition, already signed by hundreds, to stop the permanent move of archives and historical records from Bury St Edmunds and West Suffolk by Suffolk County Council to Ipswich when there are other, better alternatives.

Please note: the paper petition is now closed. It gathered over 1,000 signatures and comments.

Write to your Councillor

Write or email to your Suffolk County Councillor and protest about the archives move, urging a change of heart.  (More information on what to write below, if required)

You can find your councillor here Find your councillor – Suffolk County Council

The councillors include (but there are others):

Ms Bobby Bennett (Portfolio Holder)                                bobby.bennett@suffolk.gov.uk

Ms Beccy Hopfensperger (Thingoe North)                     rebecca.hopfensperger@suffolk.gov.uk

Mr David Nettleton (Tower, Bury St Edmunds)             david.nettleton@suffolk.gov.uk

Ms Karen Soons (Thingoe South)                                       karen.soons@suffolk.gov.uk

Mr Peter Thompson (Eastgate & Moreton Hall)            peter.thompson@suffolk.gov.uk

Mr Richard Rout (Hardwick)                                                richard.rout@suffolk.gov.uk

Mr Robert Everitt (Tower, Bury St Edmunds)                 robert.everitt@suffolk.gov.uk

Need more suggestions on what to write?

Please amend this draft as necessary and add your own views as required

I write to protest in the strongest possible terms about Suffolk County Council’s proposal to close the Bury St Edmunds Record Office and centralise those records at The Hold in Ipswich.

Whilst I recognise the severe financial pressure that the County Council is now under, this element of the Bury St Edmunds Records Office represents a miniscule part of that budget allocation.

With that in mind, I think that the people of West Suffolk deserve the right to view their own historical records and investigate the history of their families and home district. Keeping the archives in Bury St Edmunds allows that to happen, at the same time as improving access. Moving the records themselves outside the district is not an acceptable option, the journey to Ipswich is too far for most people to carry out, especially on any repeat or regular basis.

Digitised records are not accessible to many people for a host of reasons; digital versions do not satisfy the needs of researchers, who need to see the original documents. There are legal, financial and environmental issues that need to be more fully considered before a final and permanent decision is made.

West and east Suffolk have had different histories for centuries, the diversity of the county is a great strength. Change is inevitable and part of all our lives, but this proposal is not acceptable to many of us in West Suffolk. I will certainly join the campaign against this proposal.

Please ask Suffolk County Council to delay this tiny element of the budget long enough to allow other alternative proposals, such as moving the archives to new premises in Western Way, to be fully investigated and considered. I, along with the people of Bury St Edmunds and West Suffolk would be very grateful.