£4m Staffordshire heritage centre funding bid revived
Plans have been revived for a new multi-million pound heritage centre in Staffordshire that would lead to the closure of a library and record office.
The £4m bid for funding for the project, which would see a major revamp of Staffordshire Record Office in Stafford was rejected in November last year.
But now bosses are making a new application to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The scheme would see the William Salt Library in Stafford and Lichfield record office close for good and all archive material - including 10m historical records, 43,000 photos and 1,800 pieces of art held moved to improved record office in Eastgate Street.
Council chiefs say that the change would give people greater access, with the record office opening for 37 hours each week and have come up with four options for the site, to save £155,000 a year.
The £4m revamp is the preferred choice.
Members of the public can air their views during a consultation which runs until August 14.
The William Salt Library building would be linked up with the neighbouring record office in Stafford to be part of the heritage complex, but would no longer be open to the public.
Other options currently under discussion are adding a museum to the development, choosing a completely new site, or keeping the collections where they are and finding the savings elsewhere.
When the Heritage Lottery Fund rejected the bid last year bosses felt the the project 'needed a much better overall vision to demonstrate how the public could be encouraged to engage with the fantastic collection of archives more clearly'.
And the council has also been told to look in more depth at how the William Salt building could be used in future once the library has closed.
The county council's heritage boss Councillor Ben Adams said: "We are very proud of our history and heritage here in Staffordshire and it's vital that we protect it for future generations to enjoy.
"Over the past few years we have been working closely with different groups looking at how we can make sure we have a modern service, that's fit for the future and gives people the best access to the records as possible.
"We are seeing many more people accessing family history records online and this is one of the areas we want to develop along with taking the service out and involving our local communities more.
"We now want to hear what people think of the plans to deliver the new vision so I would encourage anyone with an interest in family history to go along to one of the public events or have their say on the website."
