« Reply #6 on: Thursday 06 September 18 03:25 BST (UK) »
I think the Heritage part is more to do with the repository and onsite access (albeit I'm not sure how much access there is to documents from the stores currently) not remote and research/copying services. As has been evidenced in the last year relating to Northampton RO, it doesn't really matter what political flavour the council is, most are suffering severe funding issues. Universities aren't really a good comparison, as they tend to have more money anyway, and their libraries are more geared up for research and copying facilities. I'm not getting into any discussion regarding politics and local government funding as it always gets heated.
As evidenced last year when Northants CC wanted to charge a high fee for onsite access to the archives (let alone remote access/copying) to cover funding shortfalls for Archives staff, the uproar over the level of charges caused a change of direction (for now anyway). I doubt very much even if they had a member of staff fully occupied by paid research and copying, the amount they could charge would cover the costs for such a staff member and lets face it remote access or facilities aren't a priority compared to onsite which is I suspect the minimum service level required by law.
Your profile doesn't say where you are based but if you aren't in the UK, you may obviously be not that familiar with local government funding issues over the last 10 years in this country. I'm not apportioning blame on here one way or the other for the issues that exist, but its worth bearing in mind that provision of a greater service would fall on local council tax payers who, like me, wouldn't see why we should have to pay more for people who don't live in the area to have the nicety of access to resources remotely that are accessibly locally and lose other local services. I shall leave you with that thought ...
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