Plans to build a new Isle of Wight records office at Westridge are on hold due to budget pressures.
Talks had been ongoing between the National Archive and the Isle of Wight Council to provide a new premises for the office, which preserves historical documents relating to the Isle of Wight and makes them available for public research.
Currently, the council’s collection of documents spans from the 12th to the 21st century and includes records of parish churches, schools, businesses and more.
In May last year, a meeting was held with officers from the National Archive to discuss the preferred plans for a larger facility, which could potentially have included a heritage centre, art gallery, conference centre, shop and cafe as well as a digitalisation suite.
It was estimated to have cost £4million to build, with funding support from a capital bid, and work could start in 2022/23. However, work has halted on plans due to pressure on the 2020/21 budget — where £4.5 million of savings need to be made.
In a council report, it said it is ‘not recommended’ the £1 million funding that would come from the authority is approved for the office scheme.
As a result of the decisions, work is now scheduled to maintain and improve the existing record offices at Hillside, in Newport where other options will be identified.
An Isle of Wight Council spokesperson said the scheme may go ahead in the future.
As usual with the council, going OTT. Cut out the art centre, conference centre, and cafe and provide a drinks machine.
Cloud cuckoo land, just provide a reasonably sized building to keep the records and space to access them, never mind all the bells and whistles. And Ryde is not the place for it, it needs to be centre Island
Instead on spending a waste of money on a new floating bridge the council could have afforded the new record office