Many thanks to everyone who has taken the time and trouble to share their views, comments and suggestions about TNA’s proposals to cut their operating costs by 10%, or £4.2m. We will soon be publishing them on the website.
This feedback has proved invalauble in shaping our response; we met with members of TNA’s senior management to discuss their proposals on 11 August 2009 – our meeting notes will be posted on the website shortly – whilst we attended the Open Forum meeting on 20 August, where the proposals were further discussed. It was at this meeting that TNA revealed that it would be charging £5 per day to use its car park from January 2010.
As a result of these meetings, your feedback and some research we have undertaken, we have written an open letter to Natalie Ceeney. A copy can be seen on this website, but in summary we have asked for detailed data – both financial and organisational – concerning the proposed savings plan, which at the moment is either not available, not forthcoming or not yet prepared for public examination. We have also called into question the governance of TNA and the direction its senior management are taking it, particularly as the public would appear to have been deliberately misled over certain key issues such as car park charges. A good example – the open letter was delivered via email to the Chief Executive this morning; an automated response stated that she would be out of the office until 1st September. How can the Chief Executive abandon her post for a week in the middle of one of the most important consultation exercises in TNA’s history?
So what can you do to help us? First, circulate details of this website and our campaign to as many people as possible. One of the main pieces of misinformation being circulated in the press is that these changes will benefit the public history community, which chiefly comprises family historians. Reduced access, removal of surrogates from instant access, and dumbing down will actually affect this group more than most.
Second, write to your MP and ask them to challenge TNA’s proposals. The Minister responsible for TNA, Michael Wills, is being briefed by TNA’s Chief Executive but we are now presenting our case based on our findings and meeting notes; hopefully, he will form a diffferent opinion rather than the position prepared for him by TNA.
We will also be raising the profile of this case in the media, and will post links to all newspaper articles that appear. If you have seen some not featured on the website, please send me the link and I’ll get it posted. A petition has appeared on the No.10 government website, but it is fairly narrow in scope (focusing only on Monday closure). We have attempted to create a new, broader petition but as yet have been unsuccessful in getting it listed, due to the existence of the first petition. Instead, we are looking to create our own online petition here, where you can leave your name and comments.
Further updates will appear here every couple of weeks, and more regularly as events gather pace; as well as written articles focusing on specific aspects of TNA’s proposals.
Finally, there are several local archives facing severe cutbacks and service disruption, including West Yorkshire (Halifax) and West Devon. We want to raise the profile of these cases and challenge the strategy paper, ‘Archives in the 21st Century’, prepared by TNA for the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council as a consultation paper for the Government. More information will appear on this site.
This is the first I have heard of these cutbacks, thanks to LostCousins – I am appalled to hear that they are cutting back any staff and of course opening hours will be affected. As for £5 car parking charges the government should be ashamed of themselves – when the London Archives Office was closing and all being taken to Kew we were assured that there would be no changes to access and that because all were being put under one roof access would be easier(for whom I beg to ask?) The buildings that became vacant because of these moves should generate a lot of money and therefore the cutbacks should be unnecessary. I find the journey to Kew stressful and inconvenient by Public Transport and because of the time it takes I have to book at least one night accommodation which I did not have to do when the London Offices were being used. Good Luck with your campaign; this is our heritage , I was born in London and have always considered myself lucky to be able to get information on my background, but this government has now made it much more difficult.