Archives branded ‘not fit for purpose’ bring £4m problem

Leaders at the authorities – Kirklees, Calderdale, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield – have been warned that the current Registry of Deeds building in Wakefield is not fit for purpose.

Collections of historic documents are already being diverted away from Wakefield because of the state of the leaking building.

It could cost around £4m to refurbish the building, in Margaret Street in the city centre.

A feasibility study, commissioned by Wakefield Council and sent to the leaders of the other West Yorkshire authorities, is proposing three options, which are now being considered in detail.

The options are:

Temporarily relocate the archives to a commercial warehouse for a minimum of five years until a long-term solution can be found.

This would involve refurbishment work at the warehouse and any upgrade could cost between £1.8m and £3.2m, depending on what specification standard is chosen.

The council says that due to the current financial climate, consideration is being given to a “lower specification” for any future archive store.

The lower specification would not meet British Standard 5454, but it “would be an improvement on the current facilities and further improvements could be made as and when funds become available,” the report notes.

Refurbish the existing Registry of Deeds building, which experts have declared unfit for purpose. It is estimated it would cost around £4m but it would mean some extra storage facilities would still have to be found, just to maintain current capacity levels.

Create a purpose-built archive store. The price tag has been put at around £3.25m, not including the cost of buying the land.

A report to members of Wakefield Council’s corporate performance overview and scrutiny committee, which meets on March 8, says that the sale of the existing Registry of Deeds building could be expected to raise £500,0000 to £600,000.

The report says: “It was hoped that this money would be ring-fenced to archives and re-invested in any new facility.

“If this was achieved there would still be a significant funding gap to be met by the five constituent authorities in relation to even the cheapest of the options above.”

Wakefield Council expects the four other councils to pay towards the solution to the archives storage problem.

The archives which are held in the Registry are predominantly county archives, but around a third belong specifically to Wakefield, so as the authority it expects to pay for around a third of the total cost.

The report says that whatever option were to be chosen, the need for public access has to be taken into consideration as well the storage space required for the archives.

“Some of the documents can only be viewed in situ due to their size, age and condition. Any future solution needs to include public access arrangements both on site and possibly at other locations.”

The new Westgate building in Wakefield city centre has been suggested as one possibility for a public access point.

The leaders of all five West Yorkshire authorities have seen the feasibility report and have asked council officers to look into which option is the most viable, the report says.

In Wakefield, it is intended that the director for regeneration and economic growth will present a report to members of the council’s Cabinet committee at a future meeting.

The four other authorities will be approached for their share of the funding to take one of the options forward.

Members of the overview and scrutiny committee meet on Tuesday, March 8, at 2pm in Wakefield Town Hall.