Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed all present to the meeting and read out the Building Evacuation Procedure.

In accordance with the agreed protocol for the appointment of Chair and Vice-Chair on a rota basis, the chairmanship transferred to the Member representative from Middlesbrough Council. The Member representative from Stockton, the authority next in rotation for the Chair, was appointed as Vice-Chair of the Committee.

AGREED:

•         That Councillor P Storey be appointed Chair of the Joint Archives Committee for the Municipal Year 2025/2026.

•         That Councillor N Cooke be appointed Vice-Chair of the Joint Archives Committee for the Municipal Year 2025/25.

There were no Declarations of Interest received at this point in the meeting.

The minutes of the Joint Archive Committee held on 7 May 2025 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

The Archives Manager was in attendance and presented the Teesside Archives Executive Report to the Committee.

The report highlighted the key areas of activity of the Archive Service.

The Archives Manager discussed the deposits that the Archives had received during the reporting period, a full list was included in the report at Appendix One.  The Archives Manager advised of her work on a Lottery funded project with the Tees Women Poets that collected pieces relating to the women’s movement from the 1980s, this had resulted in the acquisition of material including the Cleveland Group and its involvement in the Greenham Common peace campaign.

The community outreach figures for the period 1 February – 26 September 2025 were presented at Appendix Two and summarised below. The Archives Manager noted the Community Engagement Officer’s efforts to address the imbalance of activity in Hartlepool, as reflected in the data.

AGREED that the report be noted.

The Archives Manager presented the Teesside Archives Budget Update 2025/26 which included:

·        Income

·        Employees

·        Premises

·        Transport

·        Supplies and Services

The 2025 / 2025 Budget Contributions per Local Authority were also presented.

AGREED that the report and expenditure on the 2025-26 budget as itemised at Appendix One, be noted.

The Head of Culture presented the Teesside Archives Interim Proposals report which sought the Committee’s agreement of a series of interim arrangements for the continuation of the Archives Service.

The following interim arrangements were discussed:

1.      Service Level Agreement

The outcome of the Heritage Feasibility Study was still awaited; therefore, the existing Service Level Agreement (SLA) had been refreshed on a year-to-year basis. A copy of the current SLA was appended to the report at Appendix A.  The Committee was asked to consider the following:

•         For the Lead Officers to action a review of the SLA and obtain approval through the appropriate channels for a revised agreement which improves decision making and governance in relation to the Archives

•         For all four Local Authorities to sign-up to the new SLA for a period of three years (2026/27 – 2028/29); with the possible inclusion of a formal review point half-way through (October 27).

The Chair advised that the Joint Archives Committee had made contact with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to ascertain if other public bodies such as TVCA should be included within local archives service.  Whilst no formal response had yet been received, local MPs had agreed to raise this issue with the House of Commons.

A discussion took place and Members expressed support for a review of the decision-making governance in the SLA; however, it was agreed that finalising the SLA should be linked to the financial position and the future service model, information which was not yet available.

It was further noted that committing to financial obligations for the next 3 to 5 years would be challenging, although there was recognition that renewing the agreement on a year-to-year basis was not ideal for staff.  It was also considered that future proposals could be aligned with potential Arts Council funding in 2028.

It was agreed that the Project Leads would collaborate to develop the vision and present it to the Joint Archives Committee at its March 2026 meeting, for consideration of a 3-year SLA extension.

2.      Collections Storage

The Committee were advised that the current 5-year contract with Restore for off-site storage would terminate at the end of June 2026. Within the procurement framework, the Archives were contracted with Restore, with an option to extend the contract for a maximum of two years (July 2026 – June 2028). Restore provided a fee proposal for a 2-year extension to the contract, as shown at Appendix B of the report, which reflected the increases in cost over the past 5 years, during which time costs had remained the same. The proposal represented an overall increase of £4,414.79 in year 1 (around 5%). Year 2 costs would likely increase slightly as Restore wished to include a Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment beginning in July 2027.

The Committee agreed to the triggering of the extension of the contract with Restore to July 2028 based on the acceptance of the fee proposal, as shown at Appendix B of the report.

3.      Digital  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25/6

None.