We very much fear that the cuts in personnel currently
proposed-including a loss of eight posts-will disastrously affect
public access to collections and put collections at risk. The
services concerned have been squeezed for decades now. The total
spent on them is 0.76 per cent of the county’s annual
£973m budget. The cuts now proposed come close to execution.
Everyone in the county will be losers if we are no longer able to
research our past and thus better understand our present and
future.
.
Started by: Malcolm Graham (Oxfordshire Local History Association)
On reaching 9 signatures An officer will investigate the matter further
This ePetition ran from 19/01/2011 to 14/02/2011 and has now finished.
547 people signed this ePetition.
Some petitioners have experienced difficulty in accessing this epetition for signature and the active period has been extended by 5 days.
Summary of the response of the Director for Social & Community Services to the originator:
We face a very difficult financial position. However, I believe that the proposals do ensure that sufficient staff are retained to provide the combined services so people will be able to continue to research the past.
Conclusion
The creation of the History Centre has been driven by an economic situation; it is a solution to the problem that it will simply no longer be possible to fund the services as they stand, or anything like them, in the future. Within those constraints, the History Centre protects many of the core needs of the services and even provides improvements: the existing collections are protected and access to them is more joined-up and for longer hours. It must be remembered that this is taking place in an environment where public services once believed inviolable are being closed down completely; from the user perspective the History Services are being largely secured or even improved.
A full response can be found in the library under petition Responses:
http://mycouncilpages.oxfordshire.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=5957