There is some worrying news coming out of Brighton, East Sussex. As reported on The Argus website yesterday, Brighton History Centre is under threat of closure.
It appears that Brighton and Hove City Council are considering closing the centre, in an effort to reduce it’s overall budget by £8 million next year. The closure of the centre itself is hoped to save the council £62,000.
The problem I have with this, other than the potential loss of this valuable resource, is that there doesn’t appear to have been any definitive statement on the planned closure. The news report says that the process is still in the discussion stage, so presumably more details will become available soon.
It has been said that some of the resources will be moved to the Jubilee Library in Brighton, but the centre’s most valuable assets, it’s staff, will face redundancy. Then there is mention of “The Keep” the planned new archive for Brighton and East Sussex, although it hasn’t really progressed past the planning stage.
Any loss of services is regrettable, but without further details it is hard to assess what the impact of this proposal will be. Watch this space….
Tags: brighton, brighton and hove city council, brighton history centre, closure, east sussex
I just stumbled on this post by accident. As it happens by a weird coincidence I had just this afternoon written to Brighton History Centre thanking them for their kind help and advice when I visited them in September with some queries about my family who lived in Brighton.
I was very favourably impressed by the efficiency and quality of the service.
I’m shocked to hear that something so good is likely to be destroyed.