Agenda item

Purpose of the report: Policy Development and Review

The Residents’ Experience Board has requested a report on what Surrey Heritage currently provides for residents. Budget pressures and the changing pattern of public use will require a new strategy to be formed for the provision of Heritage Services in Surrey and this paper forms the basis for a discussion.

Declarations of interest:

None

Witnesses:

Barrie Higham, Heritage Manager

Nowal Shaikhley, Archaeological Operations Manager

Julian Pooley, Public Services and Engagement Manager

Michael Page, County Archivist

Peter Milton, Head of Cultural Services

Key points raised during the discussion:

1. The Chairman explained the Board that the meeting was being held at the Surrey History Centre (SHC) in Woking so that Members could have the opportunity to experience what the service provides Surrey’s residents first-hand.
   
   
2. A Member questioned Officers regarding income generation, asking for Officers to clarify SHC’s current position, particularly around room hire, and for the Officers to expand on any ideas of future income streams in the future. It was explained that SHC has two rooms which generate income from room hire. The spaces are available to external organisations and individuals, as well as internally for Surrey County Council employees and teams. Officers emphasised that they receive lots of room hire enquiries and gave examples of organisations that have expressed their interest in the rooms.
   
   
3. Officers highlighted some concerns with regards to room hire. Firstly, the SHC rooms were frequently booked by internal Surrey County Council teams and officers without charge. It was also noted that SHC was unable to generate income from tea and coffee refreshments from internal bookings either.
   
   
4. The second concern was regarding out of hours booking enquiries, which were very frequent. Due to the original setup of the building, for any out of hours bookings, the whole building would need to be opened up, operational and staffed. As these costs would need to be recovered by a prospective hirer, these limitations often acted as a deterrent for business.
   
   
5. The Heritage Manager proposed making the meeting rooms and foyer independent to the rest of the building in a move to maximise the business potential of the Centre. Continuing, Officers advised Members that the alarm system would need to be modified for the rooms and foyer to be separated from the whole building alarm system, allowing this section to be used out of business hours by other organisations.
   
   
6. The Board recommended that Officers prepared a business case including: the projected cost of the modifications to the building’s alarm system; projected income from room hire, both during and out of operational hours; projected costs for caretaking of the building for outside hirers.

7. Members proposed the following suggestions for Officers to explore:

a)    Withdraw the SHC from the Surrey County Council booking system so that the rooms cannot be booked free of charge for common use.

b)    Restrict internal teams to specific days for booking the SHC rooms so that so that the SHC can accept additional external bookings at prime times in the working day.

c)    Charging internal teams at a full or discounted rate for hiring the SHC rooms.

The Cabinet Member for Localities and Community Wellbeing expressed support for the suggestions raised, provided that the business cases for each option were assured and that any changes made were after consultation with the appropriate Council policies around room booking.

8. A Member expressed concern with the delays the service may encounter from Property Services in retrieving a quote and suggested that Officers approached the independent company who installed the original alarm system and to obtain a quote from there.

9. A Member asked for clarification on what geographical area the SHC covered within its archive. Officers explained that although the County’s boundaries have altered over time, there was no hardened rule for the archive. Most new records received were according to the modern County border, though for some major projects and other statutory depositories the ancient County borders were used.

10. A Member queried accessing records and whether there was a charge for this service. Officers explained that free of charge access to records held within the archives was a statutory right. For some subscription services, such as Ancestry.com, for which Surrey Libraries held a corporate licence, Surrey Libraries users received free access when using IT equipment at the Centre or other Surrey Library branches. It was noted that income from royalty fees from Ancestry.com was also a good supply of income to the Service.
    
    
11. A discussion was had around the draft Heritage Strategy, exploring details within the three key themes identified in the strategy: Discovering, Preserving and Celebrating. The Board commended the work completed on the draft Strategy and fully supported the key themes identified within it. The Board also recommended that Officers worked to receive Cabinet Member sign-off for the Strategy in time for the April 2017 submission deadline for The National Archives Accreditation Scheme.
    
    
12. It was noted by Members that events organised by the SHC took bookings in advance, therefore it was put forward to the Officers to have advertising material also distributed to Members who may also publicise the event to raise more awareness and maximise numbers.
    
    
13. Officers informed the Board that Cultural Services had made a lot of improvements in cross promotion of their services; it was also noted that Surrey Heritage was very successful at “piggy-backing” major County and National events and generating a presence and platform for self-promotion.
    
    
14. Members suggested that Surrey Matters should consider running a feature article on the Surrey History Centre to raise awareness and promote a wider understanding of its services

15. The Heritage Manager informed the Board that the service had links with BBC Surrey Radio. Members commended this relationship and suggested that this resource continued to explored and used to help broadcast the promotion of the SHC and to inform residents of the high quality service it provided.

16. The Chairman invited Officers to raise any concerns of their own with the Board before closing the meeting. Officers highlighted that the Council strategies and policies regarding the management of modern County records were in need of thorough review and improved implementation. Officers continued to express that manual and digital record management was not robust enough. As an example, records of Council decisions may only be kept in email form. Officers did not feel confident that records were being kept as thoroughly as they ought to be.
    
    
17. The Board noted the concerns raised and recommended that Officers pursue a refresh of the Council’s modern record keeping strategy.

18. The Cabinet Member explained that when taking proposals to Cabinet, it was helpful to have support from scrutiny Members, as a collective voice was stronger than a single voice. The Board agreed and suggested that a visit by Cabinet to the SHC might be beneficial.

Recommendations:

The Board recommends;

• Officers explore options for generating further income from room hire at the Surrey History Centre (SHC), including:

1.    withdrawing the SHC from the Council internal booking system;

2.    restricting internal teams to specific days for booking the SHC rooms;

3.    charging internal teams at a full or discounted rate for hiring the SHC rooms;

to allow better public availability throughout the working day.

• Officers prepare a business case including: the projected cost of the modifications to the building’s alarm system; projected income from room hire, both during and out of operational hours; projected costs for caretaking of the building for outside hirers.
• That Surrey Matters runs a feature article on the Surrey History Centre to raise awareness and promote a wider understanding of its services.
• That when Surrey Matters runs any article with historical content or references that they contact the Surrey History Centre for materials or quotes, whenever possible.
• Officers supply Members with promotional materials for Surrey History Centre events and for Members to spread the word locally for these events.
• That Cabinet pursue an update of the Council’s born-digital records strategy, to ensure the long term preservation of key decisions given electronically.

·         Officers continue to develop the Heritage Strategy on the agreed key themes of Discovering, Preserving and Celebrating Surrey's Heritage in conjunction with the Cabinet Member, and with a shared target for completion in time for the April 2017 submission deadline for The National Archives Accreditation Scheme.