Closure of Brighton history centre would be a disaster (From The Argus)
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Closure of Brighton history centre would be a disaster
2:30pm Sunday 27th December 2009 in Your Argus
I HEARD about the possibility of Brighton and Hove City Council closing the History Centre at the museum.
Initially, I thought it was a bad joke, until I read it in The Argus (December 15).
This would be a disaster for the many people who use it for their research.
I have used it for the past 14 years to research material for my books.
Without the history centre and the staff there I could not have published these books. The opportunity would not have been there.
I have heard that parts of it will be moved across to the Jubilee Library. That is no good. The library is far too small.
Just a few short years ago the centre was revamped at a great cost, and now that money is being wasted.
The fastest growing hobby in this country to date is family history and the History Centre is one of the best centres in this country for this.
I urge the council not to close the centre until its replacement, the Keep, is opened.
I would ask all those people who use the centre to write to their councillor and demand the centre be kept open.
Come on Brighton, think again.
David Rowland, Harvest Road, Telscombe Cliffs Readers should be clear that all the research resources of the Brighton History Centre are 100 per cent secure rather than being “scrapped” as your headline suggested.
Facilities in future will be much better than they are today.
However, as money is so short, it has been proposed to provide services from the Jubilee Library for two years until the new records office, The Keep, is built at Falmer.
I am aware how valuable the History Centre’s resources are and they will be continuously available.
One advantage is that Jubilee Library is open seven days a week.
This move will save over £60,000 of taxpayers’ money with no permanent damage to services. Under those circumstances any temporary inconvenience is worth bearing.
Councillor David Smith, cabinet member for culture, Brighton and Hove City Council
saveHOVE says...
2:42am Mon 28 Dec 09
Just what poky little hole at the Jubilee Library has he in mind for a "temporary" relocation - and what exactly does "temporary" mean in realtime.
"Facilities in future will be much better" he tells the reader. How?
Will access to them (if The Keep is ever built now that Britain is nearly bankrupt) be "much better" for people without cars or the physical capacity to use buses or bicycles or to negotiate steep hills on foot?
Because this Council is seemingly no longer prepared to keep historical records in the immediate area as a permanent research resource, the saveHOVE King Alfred archive cannot be donated to the city. It would just be buried out in the sticks some day miles from where the information is relevant.
How many other local history items & collections will this City lose out on receiving in years to come - bequests like the Regency Society's James Gray collection of local photographs, surely won't any longer be offered to the city for researchers to access, will they?