Reading room at Lancashire Archives at a different location, on Bow Lane

Preston and Lancashire’s historic records will be available to the public for twelve and a half hours less each week.

Lancashire Archives is to see its opening times slashed in a move Lancashire County Council says will save it tens of thousands of pounds a year.

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The Bow Lane archives are currently open for 42 hours a week, with late opening every Tuesday.

A consultation by the county council saw the public ask for late opening to be kept, but the council has budged to only have two additional hours of late opening on a Tuesday each month.

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The county council said the reduction in opening hours was needed to free up staff time to help with the preservation and digitisation of the archives.

The Archives are to be closed completely on a Monday and open half an hour later each morning. The move saves the county council £57,000-a-year, and is signed off by cabinet member for environment, planning and cultural services county councillor Marcus Johnstone.

More than 180 people filled in the county council’s consultation on the proposed opening hour changes, with 55% agreeing with them and 45% against them.

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New opening hours
Monday – Archives closed, building open 9am-4pm for Certificate Services customers
Tuesday – 9.30am-5pm, and open until 7pm on the second Tuesday of each month
Wednesday – 9.30am – 5pm
Thursday – 9.30am – 5pm
Friday – 9.30am – 5pm
Saturday – 10am – 4pm on each Saturday of each month

The new opening hours come into force from Friday 1 July.

Do you use the Archives? What do you think of the cutback in opening hours? Let us know your views in the comments below