Suffolk County Council: Abandoned Western Way development partly behind Bury St Edmunds archives move

The abandoned Western Way Hub project and the cost of maintaining a key building were cited yesterday as reasons to move precious archives from their Bury St Edmunds home to Ipswich.

While discussing Suffolk County Council’s 2024-25 proposed budget – which includes a £64.7 million cuts package – members of the authority’s scrutiny committee discussed the plans to move West Suffolk Archives from Raingate Street to Ipswich.

Suffolk County Council last week announced plans to centralise the service, based in Raingate Street, and move it to The Hold, in Ipswich, in a bid to save £140,000.

Prior to that announcement the archives – precious documents and records from our history – had been set to transfer to a purpose-built strongroom at West Suffolk Council’s planned Western Way development.

This move which would have provided the archives with a long-term home and kept them in Bury.

However, that move was scuppered when the district council shelved the Western Way plans last year.

County cllr Jessica Fleming asked the scrutiny committee: "To what extent is the proposal to move the records to Ipswich due to the failure of West Suffolk (Council) to support the new facility in Bury? This clearly makes keeping the records at the central old building quite challenging."

She also asked if the county council was having discussions with West Suffolk about what the Bury community wanted for its archives.

County cllr Bobby Bennett, cabinet member for equality and communities, said at yesterday’s meeting that the authority had been ‘disappointed’ by West Suffolk Council’s decision not to progress with the Western Way development as it meant the option to move the archives there was no longer available.

Cllr Bennett said: "We can't invest what Raingate Street needs to be a viable place."

She added that the council would be having conversations with local stakeholders about key archives.

But district cllr Cliff Waterman, West Suffolk Council leader, said: “At no point did the county council suggest an option of moving archives out of West Suffolk when they were looking at what to do with the Bury facility. That is why we offered to work with them to find affordable places the archives could stay locally.

“I urge Suffolk County Council to take us up on that proposal and work together on delivering a solution where our history remains in West Suffolk.”

Meanwhile, the Bury Free Press and SuffokNews are campaigning to keep West Suffolk Archives in Bury St Edmunds.

We are calling on Suffolk County Council to keep the West Suffolk Archives branch in Bury – echoing the views of local historians and service users that Bury’s heritage should stay in the town.