YEARS of budget cuts has put Pembrokeshire Archives at risk of losing its professional accreditation, the head of service has warned.
Mike Cavanagh, head of culture, leisure and registration services, said options were being considered to address the issue but it was “very difficult when you look at the savings going forward in the next four years.”
Mr Cavanagh told the services overview and scrutiny committee on Tuesday (September 17) said that following seven years of reducing budgets, the professional standard accreditation was in danger of being lost.
Last autumn there was a requirement to model four years of further budget reductions of 32 per cent which is reduction of £51,000 from the archives’ £158,000 controllable budget.
“On the one hand we’re having to cut services where there’s already been massive cuts, whilst on the other hand in order to achieve accreditation we need to increase staffing levels, and that’s just not possible,” he said.
The Accreditation Panel, overseen by Welsh Government, has moved Pembrokeshire Archives and Local Studies to the status of provisionally accredited for one year, pending a review of staffing capacity and plans for increasing the services resilience and ability to undertake its core mission, a report to committee states.
Mr Cavanagh said that the “ramifications” include an impact on accessing grants, an impact on people using the services and those who loan or gift records to the service being put off doing so.”
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