Lowestoft has a proud fishing history
A campaign group is fighting to save a record office that could see its archives, many donated by local people, moved to a purposebuilt £20m heritage centre on the other side of the county. Suffolk County Council is holding a public consultation over the future of Lowestoft Record Office, which it says is no longer fit for purpose. It argues its storeroom is full and prone to flooding and damp hazards, there has been a ‘sharp decline’ in visitors and that it needs to make savings to fill its budget gap of £56m by 2021.
If proposals go ahead, the archives will move to The Hold, a new £20m records and heritage centre on Ipswich Waterfront, which has just received £10.8m Heritage Lottery funding and is due to open by the end of 2019. Lowestoft would have an unmanned access point to include online catalogues and digitised images of original materials. In a Suffolk County Council statement, Cabinet member for Health and portfolio holder for Heritage Cllr Tony Goldson said it had listened to residents’ concerns and is formally consulting in late spring, adding: ‘Our priority remains the safeguarding and preservation of Suffolk’s archives in the best possible conditions for the use of current and future generations.’