Decision - New Historical Records Office and Resource Centre (The Keep) – Project update, funding arrangements and future delivery.

(1)         That Cabinet supports the work to date, particularly progression of scheme design (RIBA Stage D - detailed design), and note that the project remains within budget.

(2)         That Cabinet notes that the Joint Project Board approved the Kier – Atkins RIBA Stage D report at its 7 June 2010 meeting.

(3)         That Cabinet confirms the city council’s commitment to ‘The Keep’ and supports continued partnership working with ESCC and the University of Sussex to further develop the project.

(4)         That Cabinet agrees to a Memorandum of Understanding as the basis for continued partnership working through to RIBA Stage F (early 2011) – this to be signed by all three partners prior to submission of the planning application.

(5)         That Cabinet supports the submission of the planning application in early August 2010, subject to the satisfactory completion of pre-application discussions.

(6)         That Cabinet notes the costs of developing the scheme through the next stages and seek agreement to the council’s additional contribution of £0.421m (representing a 1/3 share) to support scheme progression to Stage F, thus bringing the council’s committed contribution to £0.929m.

(7)         That Cabinet supports the commencement of Stage E work following the successful completion of pre-application discussions with the Local Planning Authority and confirmation of a valid planning application, so as to minimise risk and expenditure prior to submission of the planning application.

(8)         That Cabinet notes the key areas to be addressed as part of the next phase of development and the timetable associated with this.

(9)         That Cabinet reconfirms ‘in principle’ agreement to the council’s longer-term funding commitment, to a maximum of £5.345m (inclusive of the development funding shown in 2.6 above), to support the capital cost of delivering The Keep, with the final decision, based on current timetable, returning to Cabinet towards the end of 2010.

The Keep is an innovative project that will address the long term storage and preservation of the city’s historic records and archives.  The current facilities are completely inadequate and unsustainable, even in the short to medium term.  Action is now required, without which it is possible that The National Archives could remove the licence and seek to place the collections elsewhere.  The new centre will overcome these problems and will represent the next generation of archive buildings in the UK, in line with the Government’s new National Archives Policy ‘Archives for the 21^st Century’, which makes specific reference to the need for “fewer, bigger, better” archive facilities.

Continuing to work in partnership with ESCC and the University of Sussex offers the best solution for addressing the city’s historic records and archives requirements and responsibilities, and is considered to provide improved value for money.  The next phase of work will provide even more confidence, and a further report to Cabinet is scheduled for later this year.

The city council has considered alternative options at previous stages of development, and has on each occasion concluded that the partnership approach offers the most cost effective solution.  It was on this basis that the council first agreed to become a full partner (April 2008), a decision that was confirmed by Cabinet in September 2009. As set out in paragraphs 3.8-3.13 of this report, the only real alternative option open to the city council would be to withdraw from the partnership and seek to provide a stand alone record office for the city which would require a greater level of capital funding. There are precious few appropriate sites available, it would be extremely difficult to separate the records / archives and to operate independent services would be contrary to national trends and would have a negative effect on service users.  

To do nothing is not an option given that material would continue to deteriorate and lead to loss of public records and historically important archives.