This meeting of the Gwent Archives Joint Committee was scheduled to receive a report on the activity of the Gwent Archives for the previous quarter, as well as reports on the service budget, and the proposed fees and charges for 2025-2026. It was also scheduled to discuss two funding requests, one for the continued funding of a part-time Preservation Assistant post, and the other for a contingency fund to support a Welsh Government funded project to remodel the Gwent Archives building. Finally, the committee was scheduled to receive a report on the service charges paid by Gwent Archives to Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council.

Please note that this summary is based solely on the information that was scheduled to be discussed at the meeting. It does not necessarily reflect what was actually discussed, or what decisions, if any, were made.

Report on the Activity of Gwent Archives

The report pack contained a report on the activity of Gwent Archives between 1 September and 30 November 2024. This included information on new staff and volunteers that had joined the team, the continuing professional development of existing staff, and the work that had been done in the archive sector by staff during the quarter.

It also contained information on a number of grants that had been awarded to the service, including:

• £76,282 from The National Archives for New Burdens Funding, awarded in July 2024
• £80,170 from the Welsh Government's Capital Improvement Fund, awarded in November 2024

The report on activity also provided an update on a number of projects that Gwent Archives had been involved in, including the #CrowdCymru project and The National Archives' 'When more is said than done' project. It described the work that volunteers had been doing, and included information on visitor numbers to the archive.

The report also highlighted the findings of an Accessibility Audit that had taken place over the summer, including:

The need for good signage, to service areas, entrances and exits, toilets and other building facilities was emphasised and these can be improved with audio notifications and tactile signage to be fully accessible

The audit also recommended that hearing loops be installed in staff areas at Gwent Archives.

The report also described the progress that had been made in cataloguing the collections at Gwent Archives, and in making the collection accessible via the service's website and social media channels, as well as on other websites such as The Archives Hub, People's Collection Wales, and commercial family history websites such as Ancestry.

Finally, the report described the outreach activities that Gwent Archives staff had been involved in, including a presentation to the South Wales Port Communities, a talk for the opening of a new exhibition at Amgeuddfa Torfaen Museum about the 75th anniversary of Cwmbran New Town, and a number of events for Explore Your Archive week, including group tours of the archive.

Gwent Archives Budget

The report pack included a report on the Gwent Archives budget, which was forecasting a modest surplus of £7,753 for 2024/25. The report also contained draft estimates for 2025/26, which showed a 4% increase in the budget, mainly due to inflationary pressures around pay and additional software support costs.

Careful consideration has been given to each area of the budget to strike a balance between the need to adequately fund the service and to keep increases to Joint Authority contributions as low as possible.

The report highlighted that two significant grants had been awarded to the service during the year:

• New Burdens Funding of £76,282 was received from The National Archives in July 2024. This money is being used to employ a full-time archivist on a temporary contract to catalogue some of the service's collections.
• A Collections Management Capital Grant of £80,170 has been awarded by the Welsh Government to be used to remodel some of the archive processing and storage rooms at Gwent Archives.

The report also included a medium term financial forecast for the service, which projected that the budget would become unsustainable in the future without an increase in funding or further cost reductions.

The figures in the medium term financial forecast aim to give an indication only of the costs the service could face in the next few years. The forecast implies that increased funding will be required to maintain a sustainable budget for the service, in its current structure, into the near future.

Proposed Fees and Charges

The committee was scheduled to consider a report on the proposed fees and charges for 2025-2026. It was recommended that the majority of fees and charges be increased by either 4% or 5%, to take account of continuing increases in costs.

The report highlighted that:

Information about our collections, facilities and services will always be provided free of charge, and access to the collections onsite is also free. Charges are in place for discretionary services, including copying, remote research, conservation work, self-service photography licenses, sale of publications, fees for tours, workshops and talks, publication fees and charges for room hire.

The report also proposed a small increase to the daily self-service photography license, to bring it closer to charges across the sector, and the addition of new charges for hiring the Education Room at Gwent Archives, which was now available for hire again following its use by the NHS as part of the Covid-19 Mass Vaccination Centre.

Continued Funding of a Preservation Assistant

The report pack included a request for the continued funding of a part-time, temporary Preservation Assistant. It explained that this post had been created in April 2024, with funding from the service's reserves, to help reduce the backlog of material awaiting treatment.

All new collections given to Gwent Archives are assessed before they are housed in the Strong Room, if there is evidence of damp, excessive dust/dirt, mould or insect activity they need to be isolated so that other collections are not affected. They are stored separately until they can be treated and packaged before moving to a permanent location in the strongrooms.

The report explained that the appointment of the Preservation Assistant had had a great impact on the backlog, and that one of the rooms holding items awaiting treatment was now nearly empty. However, it also highlighted that there was more work to do, and that the post was needed to continue to reduce the backlog.

The continuation of the post will complete the reduction of the backlog to a manageable amount as well as support the additional collections care projects identified by the Conservator so that future tasks – such as replacing damaged boxes, repackaging catalogued and uncatalogued items currently in non-archival packaging and decanting overfull boxes -can be absorbed in ‘Business as Usual’ activities.

The report requested further funding from the reserves to extend the post for a further 12 months, at an estimated cost of £15,829.

Contingency Fund for the 'Transforming Gwent Archives' Project

The final report in the pack was a request for a contingency fund to support the 'Transforming Gwent Archives' project, which had been awarded £80,170 from the Welsh Government's Capital Improvement Programme fund.

The funding is to remodel some of the archive processing and storage rooms with much-needed shelving and equipment as well as to englarge the current ‘workroom’, where cataloguing takes place, to absorb an adjacent unused room to provide more space for cataloguing work

The report explained that the work was scheduled to be completed by the end of March 2025. It requested a contingency fund of £10,000 from the service's reserves, just in case the cost of the building work was higher than anticipated.

Annual Service Charges

The committee was scheduled to receive a report on the service charges that are paid by Gwent Archives to Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council for the use of the General Offices in Ebbw Vale.

The Lease relating to premises known as Offices Ground Floor General Offices North Wing The Works Ebbw Vale and the Archival Building General Offices The Works Ebbw Vale (Clause 25) sets out the terms for the service charge; Advance Payments and Balance Payments

The report explained that there were two parts to the charge, Advance Payments and Balance Payments. Advance Payments are made quarterly in advance, and Balance Payments are made after the end of the financial year, based on a statement provided by Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council.

The report stated that while Advance Payments had always been made, there had been issues with the Balance Payments.

Historically statements had not been received after the end of the service charge year and a backlog has built up and an estimate ‘accrued’ each year by TCBC Finance Officers. Whilst this is being addressed by BGCBC, it does represent a risk to the Gwent Archives finances as Balance Payments vary depending on factors such as the cost of utilities and the maintenance/repairs taking place each year and are difficult to estimate.

It explained that work was being done to address this backlog, and that charges for the years 2018/19 and 2019/20 had now been resolved. It also stated that Balance Payments for the years 2020/21 to 2022/23 had been received, and that discussions were underway to agree these charges.