I ATTENDED the public meeting held to discuss the future of York City Archives. A large proportion of the council agenda consisted of an irrelevant recital by the university archivist of the Borthwick Institute's failings over the last quarter century to provide a decent service and conditions for its users, staff and archives.
Questions from the floor started to usefully probe future costs, the 25-year-long contract period to be given to the university, loss of expertise, but discussion of these and other issues was stifled and the City Archivist was neither on the platform nor allowed to question from the floor.
The officers of the council are proposing an irretrievable transfer of 600 years of records to a body which is not accountable to the public in order to allow the university to gain Heritage Lottery Funding for its own aggrandisement.
No other city in the country has allowed this to happen and I would ask all City Archive users and citizens to write to their councillors urging them to discard this plan and discuss in detail the many other options available to enhance the international reputation of their own City Archive.
Barry Freedman,
Egton Grange, Whitby.
Updated: 10:29 Tuesday, April 09, 2002
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