Record Office to close, but talks continue over archives

by Joao Santos, Local Democracy Reporter, Bury Free Press

The records office in Bury St Edmunds will close despite campaigners’ efforts. The decision to shut the archives branch in the town and move it, alongside Lowestoft’s offce to The Hold, in Ipswich, was made during last week’s Suffolk County Council (SCC) budget discussions. This is despite a campaign led by the Bury Free Press, Bury Society and Bury St Edmunds Town Trust to keep the offices from shutting down which garnered more than 2,500 signatures from residents.

Although the decision means all statutory documents such as marriage certificates will
moved to Ipswich, during the meeting cabinet member for equality and communities Cllr
Philip Faircloth-Mutton said a working party would be set up to better analyse the future of
non-statutory archives.

John Popham, trustee of the Bury St Edmunds Town Trust, welcomed the setting up of the working party but said councillors had missed the mark. He said: ‘There shouldn’t be a compromise
because all of the documents were important, statutory or otherwise and, therefore, all the documents should stay locally. We really respect the needs that the county has and we’re
pleased the council has been able to do whatever they needed to provide them as well as possible
but, in this case, they haven’t got it right.”

The Bury Town St Edmunds Trust has also submitted a formal maladministration claim to the council’s monitoring officerr asking for a complete review of the decision.

SCC said if West Suffolk’s records office were to stay at its current location, in Raingate Street, it would cost £5 million — moving the archives, however, is expected to save £140,000 a year.

Meanwhile, this week West Suffolk Council approved a motion proposed by Cllr Julia Wakelam calling upon Suffolk County Council to suspend the implementation of the closure and engage with West Suffolk Council, as well as other stakeholders, to find a different solution.

She said “These are the physical manifestations of our history and our collective sense of identity.
Regardless of how often one visits the records office, to remove them is to erase our heritage and our connection to communities. “

These concerns were echoed by Dr Rachel Wood, who spoke about the archives’ importance during the meeting’s public participation section. She said: “When archives are stored away from the community to which they belong it’s a bit like putting things up in your loft —out of sight, out of mind. I fear that what is being suggested is the breaking up of our precious heritage. “

There was some pushback, however, from opposition leader, Cllr Nick Clarke, who, despite
supporting the keeping of the records locally, the motion as the wrong way to go about it.
He reiterated last week’s county council comments that the decision had been taken as a result of the cancellation of the Western Way project, where the records were proposed to be kept with the help of a £5.4 million investment by the county’ s leaders.”

Cllr Clarke said “Shouting at the county council, by way of this motion, will achieve nothing. ” Cllr Beccy Hopfensperger , who is also part of the county council’s cabinet, revealed that the cabinet member responsible for the archives, Cllr Philip Faircloth-Mutton, had now agreed to meet West Suffolk’s leader Cllr Cliff Waterman — following several public criticisms over lack of engagement.

To see and hear who said what about this issue at the West Suffolk Council meeting, click here for an edited version of Dr Rachel Wood’s address and Cllr Julia Wakelam’s motion and debate.