Your views on our proposal to save money by reducing the opening hours of the Norfolk Record Office

Closed 16 Dec 2022

Opened 21 Oct 2022

Contact

0344 800 8020

haveyoursay@norfolk.gov.uk

Feedback updated 23 Mar 2023

We asked

We asked what you thought of a proposal to shut the Norfolk Record Office (NRO) to the public on a Friday, but to extend the opening hours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, by opening half an hour earlier. Meaning the NRO's new opening hours would be from Tuesday to Thursday, from 9.30am to 5pm. If our proposals are approved, the NRO will be open for 22.5 hours each week in the future.

You said

During the public consultation on Norfolk Record Office opening hours several respondents expressed concern about the overall reduction in access to the Collection and the impact that it might have on those travelling to use the Norwich searchroom on multiple days.

We did

Having taken these views on board, the NRO will run a six-month trial of pre-booked Friday service.  This service will be limited to consulting original documents booked before 12 noon on the preceding Wednesday.  Microfilms will not be available but can still be consulted at the Norfolk Heritage Centre.  The other proposed changes to searchroom hours will be implemented: opening half an hour earlier, at 9.30, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Full details of the revised service are available on the NRO website;  www.norfolk.archives.gov.uk

For more details on the Council Meeting in which the budget proposals were agreed click here

Overview

Norfolk County Council will set a new budget on 21st February 2023.

In this consultation we are asking for your views on a proposal to reduce the opening hours of the Norfolk Record Office. This proposal would save us £22,000 in 2023/24.

Why we are consulting

We want to find out what people think about our proposals.

We are consulting through:

  • This online consultation, which is also available as a paper copy
  • Letter to members of the Norfolk Residents’ Panel

We are consulting from 21st October 2022 to 16th December 2022. Please note that if we receive any consultation responses after the 16th December 2022, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to take them into account. 

We will feed back the findings from our consultation to our county councillors as part of the evidence they will use to help them come to a decision about our budget proposals.

If you need a copy of this consultation document in a different format please email haveyoursay@norfolk.gov.uk, call 0344 800 8020 or Text Relay on 18001 0344 800 8020 (textphone) and we will do our best to help.

An Easy Read and Large Print version of this consultation is available to download at the bottom of the page. 

The consultation should take between 10-15 minutes to complete. 

We now want to hear your views on these proposals.

What happens next

This consultation closed on Friday 16th December.

We will take a report about the findings of this consultation to the Council Cabinet in January 2023. We will set a new budget on 21st February.

Our county councillors will consider the consultation responses we receive very carefully.

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to respond to this consultation.

Areas

  • All Areas

Audiences

  • Anyone from any background

Interests

  • Spending
  • Environment