Access denied
Why was a record office & heritage collection in Yeovil closed to the public? Will it ever return? A working party, scoping and study are all in hand.... to determine when and if it can reopen.
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The South Somerset Heritage Collection is a historic collection which includes 30,000 objects and 6,000 photographs reflecting the story of Yeovil and South Somerset.
The collection is in the care of Yeovil Town Council who use agreements with Somerset Council to house the material, and South West Heritage Trust for advice on the care and management of the items.
It is housed at Lufton Depot on Artillery Road, a South Somerset District Council (some of our readers may remember this site for its role in the Pig Gate scandal) site now owned by Somerset Council.
They operate as an Accredited Museum, storing and caring for a diverse range of items from Roman mosaics to Yeovil Town Football Club programmes.
The collection tells the story of the area’s people and places through its extensive collections of archaeology, social history and industrial items.
Except that it doesn’t. In March this year, the collection abruptly closed to members of the public.
A spokesperson for the collection told us: “A recent Health and Safety review undertaken by Somerset Council, who own and manage the building where the collection is housed, identified issues that led to the decision to close the building to the public but determined it remained safe for staff to continue working.”
Why precisely it is safe for staff, but not safe for the public, no-one seems able to explain. We asked why, for instance, access could not be granted to a small number of users – say two at a time? The spokesperson simply told us: “This would not comply with the assessment as carried out by Somerset Council.”
Perhaps a different location in South Somerset could be used? After all, not all of the items relate to Yeovil. We were told: “The management and storage of the collection has specific requirements with items requiring climate and light control, a fire arms collection etc. we will explore options but we are not aware of an existing alternative site that could be used.”
Trying again, as South West Heritage Trust have expertise and storage capacity, could they perhaps take over the collection to make it available to the public? Apparently not. The official response is that: “Moving the collection will incur substantial cost and there is always risk when moving a historical collection. Therefore, we seek to reduce the amount of times the collection is moved and our aim is to find a permanent solution. Yeovil Town Council have a service level agreement with South West Heritage Trust who support us with management of the collection and will work in partnership with us through this process.”
At least the collection could be made available digitally. Or perhaps the catalogue of items could be available so members of the public can search the collection to know what is there, perhaps along with a photographic record of the item.
We were astonished to be told that the collection is not currently available online.
So what are Yeovil Town Council doing to get back to a position where the collection can be made available to the public? The answer seems to be not much.
On 31 March, the town council put out a statement saying the way forward was that: “a working party has been established that will commission a study exploring suitable alternative premises for the collection. The group’s initial focus will be to agree the scope of this study that will include an options appraisal for the development of a Museum or Heritage Centre for Yeovil.”
When we asked at the end of May about the progress being made towards a solution, we were told: “a working party has been established that will commission a study exploring suitable alternative premises for the collection. The group’s initial focus will be to agree the scope of this study that will include an options appraisal for the development of a Museum or Heritage Centre for Yeovil.”
In short, the eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted that the two statements are identical and suggest that nothing has moved forward in three months.
The very idea that there is a working party, that the working party will commission a study, is so reminiscent of a scene from Yes Minister, it should send alarm bells to members of the public hoping for a solution in the near future.
Is this a process destined to be mired in delay?
It appears from the repeat statement at the end of May that the working party is still at the “initial focus” stage, and agreeing the scope of the study is still described in the future tense.
Meanwhile, Yeovil Town Council insists that it: “would like to reassure residents and stakeholders that it remains fully committed to the collection’s long-term future and to making it accessible to the public”.
But any return to the public domain appears to be destined for the very “long term”.
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And no doubt the Working Party is composed of the same numptys who closed the perfectly located Museum building in Central Yeovil and relocated it to the dust cart depot at Lufton. You couldn't make it up!