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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
RESOLVED: To note the report.
RESOLVED: To note the report.
RESOLVED: That the projected full year outturn position for 2024/25 as detailed in this report be noted.
Apologies were received from Cllrs Rhiannon Birch, Gareth Jones, Keith Jones and Barry Stephens. It was noted that Cllr Martyn Jones had replaced Cllr Jon-Paul Blundell on the committee as a representative of Bridgend County Borough Council.
There were none.
The minutes of the meeting held on 14th June 2024 were agreed as a correct record. The Glamorgan Archivist noted that the tour of the archive building would need to be when they were closed to the public (so a Monday or a Friday), and suggested that it could take place immediately before the next meeting on Friday 13th December. If Members were unable to attend the tour on that day then she could arrange a separate individual tour for them. One Member noted that it would be preferable to have a hybrid option for the next meeting rather than it being entirely in-person. The Glamorgan Archivist responded that this might be difficult due to the equipment they had in their meeting room, but she would look into the options.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED: To note the report.
Laura Cotton (Glamorgan Archivist) presented the quarterly report describing the work of Glamorgan Archives for the period 1st June to 31st August 2024. Firstly, she reported with sadness the death of Harvey Thomas (Assistant Archivist) on 22nd August. Harvey had not been well for some time but his passing was sudden and unexpected. He worked at the Archives for almost 30 years and his knowledge and insight was irreplaceable. Harvey was a well-liked and popular member of the team, and would be sadly missed by staff, volunteers and users alike. It was a difficult time for the staff and his loss was felt very keenly. The Joint Committee held a minute’s silence in his memory. The Archivist added that the committee’s representative from Merthyr Tydfil had recently stepped down as a councillor and they had not yet confirmed a replacement, but she was in touch to sort that out. Moving onto the report, she highlighted that the 2024 Open Doors event had been confirmed for Saturday 28th September. The tours on this day were fully booked and she hoped it would be a busy and positive day. The National Broadcast Archive’s Clip Corners were launching in October, and all members of the Joint Committee had received an invite from the National Library of Wales. She reported that the tender process for the procurement of a digital preservation system for the Wales consortium had concluded, and with the standstill period ending yesterday she could announce that the successful tenderer was Preservica. The digital preservation software would be supplied through consortium partners. It had been a time-consuming and long-term piece of work, and she was pleased to be in a position to progress with it. She outlined a number of events that had taken place with community groups, and added that the first newsletter had been published. They would continue on a quarterly basis, with the next one in early December. Rhian Diggins (Senior Archivist) added that there had been a number of student visits this quarter, although there had been no school visits due to the summer holidays. Staff from Cathays Heritage Library had visited, and it was important to maintain contacts with library staff across Glamorgan. In particular, they had been working with Merthyr Tydfil on the archive of documents related to the Aberfan disaster, and were in discussion with Cardiff and Gwent Magistrates’ Court around the transfer of records under the Public Records Act. This project would be eligible for New Burdens funding if the records were deposited by December. She added that collections week had taken place in June, and the archive had been closed to the public so that staff could focus on large collections. It had been very successful and they looked forward to the next one in November. Work continued on phase 2 of the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust-funded project to repair and preserve the designs for Cardiff Castle. This project was wholly externally funded and progressing in line with the project plan, with phase 3 due to start in January 2026. She reported a number of staffing changes, which was relatively unusual as the Archives had a very dedicated team. Both administrative officers had retired within a short space of time and their new hires had in place since June. These were part time roles at 22 hours each per week, and they had been excellent additions so far. Work was underway on preparations for the mid-point review of the Archives’ Accreditation status, which was due at the end of the month. The accreditation lasted for six years and the review was relatively light-touch. She reviewed the quarter in terms of volunteer work, noting that 38 volunteers and students had contributed 696 hours of work to the Archives and continued to make a valuable contribution. They had held volunteer reviews recently, gathering feedback on placements, and the annual volunteer trip had been a behind-the-scenes tour of the National Collection Centre. Finally, she noted that a bid had been submitted to the Welsh Government Transformation Capital Grant programme to make the building more sustainable and complete improvement works. This would include replacing lighting with LEDS, completing remedial electrical repairs, repairing the chiller, replacing boilers with heat pumps and adding a solar panel array to increase energy generation. These changes would help reduce the Archives’ carbon footprint and contribute to the Welsh government’s green targets. The Chair thanked officers for their work on the report. There were no questions from Joint Committee Members. RESOLVED: To note the report.
Part of an issue followed across 2 meetings
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED: To note the report.
The Glamorgan Archivist noted that this report was slightly later than usual due to workloads, and she was happy to take comments and amendments. If the Joint Committee were happy with it then it would be translated and published on the website. RESOLVED: To note the report.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED: That the projected full year outturn position for 2024/25 as detailed in this report be noted.
Jessie Atkinson presented the report of the Treasurer, which provided the Joint Committee with details of expenditure and income as at the 31st July 2024 against the approved 2024/25 budget and projections for the full year outturn position. She emphasised that this was a projection based on the data available at this point and was subject to change. Regardless, they were in a very positive position and could expect to be in surplus for the year, allowing them to make a contribution to the Glamorgan Archives reserve of approximately £46k. The budget surplus could be spent on improvements to bring down future premises costs, hence preliminary work was being done on the grant application for building efficiency work. The employee budget was largely in line with the main budget, with just a £2k overspend over the £555k budget due to staffing changes. The premises budget had an underspend of approximately £19k, with continuous repair work planned in the year as was usually the case. New doors, CCTV and gas canisters would cost about £10k in all, and it was prudent to project that the full £30k budget would be spent. The main underspend was coming from utility costs, and she noted that the last budget had been set at a time when these were increasingly very rapidly. The colder months were still to come, and it was prudent to adjust for a higher spend on gas, electric and water over the winter, with an underspend of roughly £20k projected. There had been a slight increase in office cleaning costs but no significant variance in transport costs. The supplies and services budget carried a large overspend due to the procurement of the digital preservation upgrade, which was not included in the budget as it wasn’t confirmed at that point. There was also an overspend on software services due to changing licences, and the support services budget was expected to be fully spent. In terms of income, their target of £106k, likely to be around £260k due to grants coming in. The digital preservation upgrade would cost approximately £100k and New Burdens funding had been confirmed at £28,518. This was not earmarked for any specific purpose, but rather supported the general running of the archive. The other large income source was room rentals, in particular from the Cardiff Registrars service which was paying £46k annually to be based out of there while City Hall was closed. She summarised that while not everything could be projected with certainty, the Archives were overall in a strong position to have a surplus of around £46k this year. This could either be contributed to the reserve or spent on preliminary work on a grant application for capital works. The budget for 2025/26 would come to the next Joint Committee meeting. The Chair thanked officers for their work on the report. There were no questions from Joint Committee Members. RESOLVED: That the projected full year outturn position for 2024/25 as detailed in this report be noted.
Friday 13th December 2024 at 2pm. The Glamorgan Archivist would confirm whether or not this would be in person after the tour, or if the tour would take place on another date.
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