The Head of Planning & Regulatory Services had submitted a report which sought approval to release £999,500 from the Town Hall Works (Lot 2) fund to complete Phases 1 and 2 of the proposed Archive Scanning Project.

Cabinet is recommended to:

·       Approve the request for the release of £999,500 from the Town Hall Works (Lot 2) fund to complete Phases 1 and 2 of the proposed Archive Scanning project.

·       Delegate to the Executive Director (Development) in consultation with Councillor Chapman [Cabinet Member for Citizen Focused Services and Council Companies], the Head of Finance and the Head of Law and Governance the authority to enter into any contracts necessary to undertake the project where they do not already have authority within the constitution.

The Head of Planning & Regulatory Services had submitted a report which sought approval to release £999,500 from the Town Hall Works (Lot 2) fund to complete Phases 1 and 2 of the proposed Archive Scanning Project.

Councillor Chapman presented the report and said that the report asks for resources to catalogue and scan the thousands of documents which are housed in the Town Hall. He said that moving these documents to a digital place would release space in the Town Hall and help to better organise the documents. He added that this would also help to reduce fire risk in the Town Hall. Councillor Chapman said that the money for this proposed work is in the budget, and he asked Cabinet to support the paper.

Nathan Breeze, Regeneration Manager, added that a further benefit of cataloguing the documents is that it would help the Council to better adhere to GDPR and relevant policies.

Councillor Arshad expressed her support for this project and the report.

Councillor Hollingsworth noted the previous efforts which had attempted to do this work. He said that in previous efforts, some document packs only had the front page scanned and that many key documents had not been scanned. He said that they want to make sure that whatever contractor they use, they do not allow them to do a poor job of scanning. He emphasised that they need to ensure the scanning of the whole document is done properly.

Councillor Smith added that she would hope that a critical human eye will be cast over everything, to ensure that documents are kept in good shape once scanned. She asked if the documents would be disposed of after being scanned.

Councillor Turner said that regarding the financial implications of this project, that this work will free up space in the Town Hall. He noted that there is ongoing work to examine the future use of the Town Hall. He said that this work is going to lead to a more effective use of their building which can benefit the Council as an organization and their finances.

The Head of Planning Services responded that part of the first phase of this work will involve officers examining the documents to decide what is going to be scanned and cataloguing the archived documents. He said that they would ensure that scanners don’t only scan the first page or do a poor job. He added that their plan is to only retain the physical documents of scanned documents where there is a legal requirement for them to. He stated that they are proposing to confidentially destroy many of the documents once they are scanned.

The Regeneration Manager emphasised that this work provides an opportunity to make better use of the Town Hall and the spaces therein.

Councillor Chapman added that they are expecting to receive some proposals shortly on how the space will be used going forward.

Tom Bridgman, Executive Director of Development said that they are working on this matter. He said that they will be engaging with staff, members, and users on this topic.

Councillor Brown encouraged the Cabinet to remember that storing things digitally also holds a cost that they should consider. Although this project would improve matters, Councillor Brown noted that there are still financial and energy costs associated with storing documents online.

Cabinet agreed to:

·       Approve the request for the release of £999,500 from the Town Hall Works (Lot 2) fund to complete Phases 1 and 2 of the proposed Archive Scanning project.

·       Delegate to the Executive Director (Development) in consultation with Councillor Chapman [Cabinet Member for Citizen Focused Services and Council Companies], the Head of Finance and the Head of Law and Governance the authority to enter into any contracts necessary to undertake the project where they do not already have authority within the constitution.