Wrthi'n llwytho
Does dim crynodeb o'r cyfarfod hwn eto. Caiff un ei ysgrifennu pan fydd y cyngor yn cyhoeddi'r cofnodion. Mae'r agenda a'r papurau isod.
1.1 Apologies were received from Councillors Elaine Forehead (Caerphilly CBC), Julian Simmonds (Caerphilly CBC), David Williams (Torfaen CBC), Rachael Lovering and John Evans
2.1 The meeting was confirmed as quorate.
3.1 There were no declaration of interests.
4.1 The CA presented her report, pulling out key points. Following, she responded to questions from the Joint Committee as follows: • The contingency fund of £10,000 that was sourced from the Reserves in respect of the building work had not been needed. • The extra staffing costs of £15,829 that had been requested was no longer needed due to changes within the staffing structure. • There had been a good relationship established with the Education Attainment Service (EAS) which was hoped to be positive for engagement with schools. The EAS were proactive in signposting teachers to Gwent Archive to source teaching materials. • The planned refurbishment had been highly positive and had been completed a week prior to the deadline. • The backlog of collection items that were awaiting treatment within the isolation room was reduced by 65% during this period. • Digital records would be managed under the same guidelines as physical records. The retention period would remain the same and after this period, the record would either be sent to disposal or for preservation in Preservica. There was an All-Wales group dedicated to this digital preservation project, therefore a great amount of support was available. • Blaenau Gwent Partnership Scrutiny Committee will be attended as an outcome of the previous year’s audit where it was suggested that closer links between the Local Authority and Gwent Archives would be beneficial. As a part of this, there was now a designated link officer within Blaenau Gwent Council which was explained to be extremely helpful. • The heating issues had been raised with Blaenau-Gwent County Borough Council. The Committee were assured that these issues did not affect the collections. • The website was outdated, and it was hoped a new website would allow for researchers to access collections digitally. There were conversations currently being held with SRS to agree a website structure that suited the archive and to discuss the associated costs. • Currently engagement with schools looked like class visits and engagement with individual teachers requesting resources. • Whilst groups attending the archive was unusual now due to issues with school’s funding, Caerleon school had a funded project currently which had enabled them to access the archive. • Providing resources to schools had become more complex due to diverse curriculums, therefore, it was more difficult to create resources that suited multiple schools. It was hoped that digitising sources would assist with this. • There had been a recent Cardiff University partnership project which had been positive. • A subsidised transport service would be extremely useful to facilitate school attendance to the archive as it was noted a 5 minute, or 2-hour bus journey had the same cost to the school. 4.2 The Committee thanked Gwent Archive for their work this quarter and noted how extensive this had been. 4.3 Members of the Committee noted the contents of this report. .
5.1 The LFO presented her report, pulling out key points. Following, the questions from the Joint Committee were answered as follows: • The full risk report was presented to the Committee once a year, usually around June. However, this was reviewed in Leadership Team meetings once a quarter. The risk register was surrounding the risks to the service itself, rather than the building as this would be included on Blaenau-Gwent Council’s risk register. 5.2 i) The Joint Committee completed the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) to facilitate the approval process of the 2024/25 Annual Return in June 2025. ii) The Joint Committee noted that the signature of the Chair will be required to confirm approval of the Annual Return, which includes the governance statement, prior to the 30th June 2025 and before the accounts are made available for public inspection.
6.1 The CA presented her report, pulling out key points. Following, she responded to questions from the Joint Committee as follows: • A total of £50,000-53,000 was being requested to enable the removal of the green roof. £20,000 of this would be contingency funds in case immediate action was needed after removal. If this was agreed, work alongside Blaenau-Gwent County Borough Council would start immediately. • It was not felt the roof would need to put back identically and there would be conversations held about sustainability when looking at alternatives. 6.2 That the Gwent Archives Joint Committee: I. Noted the concerns relating to the roof over the newer, purpose-built, part of the Gwent Archives building. II. Gave approval for £53,000 of funding from the Reserves to: commission contractors to remove the green roof to allow a detailed assessment of the condition of the roof construction underneath; and allow up to £20,000 for any immediate works required to secure the roof construction and prevent water ingress into the archive storage areas. III. Noted that further expenditure on the roof is likely, and dependent on what is found following the removal of the roof.
7.1 The CA presented her report, pulling out key points. Following, she responded to questions from the Joint Committee as follows: • Customer expectations had changed since Covid-19. There were less visitors to the archive, but the number of digital queries had more than doubled. It was hoped that the hours and service could be adapted to meet these new expectations. An example of this adaption would be online searchable catalogues and collections. • There was consideration of removing the lunch hour closure each day and re-aligning the hours to be over 3 days, leading to a minor difference of 2 hours lost in total. However, a full consultation would be undertaken before any further considerations were made. • Volunteers were counted with visitors as they were also using the archive and were required to sign in. • Volunteers’ regular hours would be considered when considering new opening hours as to make every possible effort to retain volunteers. 7.2 Members noted the contents of the report prior to the presentation ecommendations for new opening hours at the June meeting of the Gwent Archives Joint Committee.
8.1 The CA presented her report, pulling out key points. Following, she responded to questions from the Joint Committee as follows: • There was active work being undertaken to identify gaps within collections to address this. This process would include identifying both the strengths and the weaknesses of our collections. • It was also noted that it was not always easy to add to collections, as requests to transfer records were not always answered. 8.2 The Gwent Archives Joint Committee approved the proposed Service Plan for 2025-26.
9 Review of the Gwent Archives Digital Preservation Policy 9.1 The CA presented her report, pulling out key points. Following, she responded to questions from the Joint Committee as follows: · The digital strategy was last agreed in 2022. This review had been delayed due to the planned roll out of Preservica to the archive. This had since been undertaken, therefore there the updates to the strategy could be seen. It was noted that the updates were completed in conjunction with the staff member responsible for testing Preservica. 9.2 The Gwent Archives Joint Committee approved the reviewed and updated Digital Preservation Policy
10.1 It was brought to the attention of the Joint Committee that it was the anniversary of the spring offensive of 1918. 10.2 The Joint Committee were invited to the Wales National Armed Forces Day Event that was to be hosted by Monmouthshire County Borough Council this year. to be hosted by Monmouthshire County Borough Council this year.
11.1 The date of the next meeting was confirmed to take place in the new municipal year.
Rhaid i gynghorwyr ddweud pan fydd ganddyn nhw gysylltiad personol â rhywbeth sy'n cael ei drafod, fel swydd, eiddo neu aelod o'r teulu. Mae buddiant sy'n rhagfarnu yn ddigon cryf i'r cynghorydd adael yr ystafell fel arfer a pheidio â chymryd rhan.
Caiff datganiadau eu darllen o'r cofnodion unwaith y byddan nhw wedi'u cyhoeddi.
Yn rhestru cynghorwyr presennol y cyngor yn unig. Nid yw aelodau cyfetholedig, swyddogion a chyn-gynghorwyr yn cael eu dangos.