Council Leader gives assurances on the future of Flintshire Records office

Flintshire County Council leader Aaron Shotton says there are “no current alternative plans” for Flintshire Records Office and has accused a local councillor of “shameful scaremongering”

The records office shares the 18th-century grade II listed building on Rectory Lane with Hawarden community library, the library is due to close down along with Mancot and Queensferry libraries in a cost-saving move as the council look to make savings in the face of unprecedented budget cuts.

Hawarden councillor Clive Carver has led a fight to keep the library open following the council’s decision to close it, he believes it is just a matter of time before the records office goes the same way.

Fears have grown locally around the future of the historic building, those fears have been compounded by a paragraph in various Flintshire Council reports which state the library ‘occupies a small section of the ground floor of Hawarden Records Office’ however, the report goes on to say ‘This building is not expected to be retained by the county council’ and is ‘inefficient and costly’

Paragraph taken from The Organisational Change Overview & Scrutiny Committee meeting Agenda document:

• Hawarden library occupies a small section of the ground floor of Hawarden Record Office, a listed property. This building is not expected to be retained by the county council as it is an inefficient, costly building to retain, with poor access and not totally DDA compliant. The library space is not able to be modernised due to constraints of the building, and currently comprises several small rooms unsuitable for group visits, school visits or Rhymetime sessions, and cannot meet the needs of the community. Current repairs and maintenance identified in a survey carried out in August 2014 totalled £9005.

In response to Mr Carver’s claims Flintshire County Council’s Ian Bancroft, the Chief Officer for Organisational Change said:

“The paragraph within the report is headed ‘Hawarden Library’ so therefore when it references the building not being retained it is intended to mean the library building is not being retained as a council library”

Cllr Carver raised the question of the records office in front of a packed audience during last week’s North East Wales Heritage Forum meeting at the Civic Hall in Connah’s Quay.

A video shot by John Butler shows Cllr Carver asking the audience if they were aware of plans to close libraries and the records office, an employee of the records office says she “doesn’t know of any plans of closure” north Wales Assembly member Mark Isherwood is seen clearly agreeing with Mr Carver about the closure.

Heritage conference stunned as @FlintshireCC cllr raises issue of library/records office closures https://t.co/JflzRCui8V @MarkIsherwoodAM

— John Butler jb (@jbsandown) June 21, 2015

Council Leader Aaron Shotton used Twitter to counter Mr Carver’s claim and accuse him of “shameful scaremongering”

@jbsandown @FlintshireCC @MarkIsherwoodAM shameful scaremongering from the Tory Cllr. There are no plans to close records office.

— Aaron Shotton (@AaronShotton) June 21, 2015

Mr Carver says he was unable to respond to the Council Leader tweet as Mr Shotton had blocked him on the social network:

Cllr Shotton said today:

“At a recent scrutiny committee I made it clear that we have no current alternative plans for the records office or the building and the fact that we are offering the library side of the building to the community if they come forward clearly demonstrates this.

Writing on his website clivecarver.yourcllr.com Mr Carver says:

‘I consider the Flintshire Record Office at the Old Rectory in Hawarden to be one of the jewels in Flintshire’s crown and I do not want to see this archive service, which earlier this year became the first in north Wales to be awarded Archive Service Accreditation by The National Archives, close.

Just two weeks after I had been called to a meeting with Cllr Chris Bithell – Cabinet Member for Education, Ian Bancroft and Pennie Corbett – Principal Libraries & Arts Officer to advise me of the impending closure of Hawarden Library, I received a Flintshire Press Release on 26th March, advising of their Accreditation.

Alarm bells started ringing with me regarding the Flintshire Record Office at that meeting and unfortunately this fitted in with what had been suggested by a senior FCC officer last year.

I do not want to see the Flintshire Record Office move from its Hawarden base and I fear that with conflicting reports and announcements from Flintshire County Council, that the Flintshire Record Office may ‘sleepwalk’ into closure.’

Meanwhile, those opposed to Mancot library closure are holding a public meeting this Friday at Mancot Village Hall.