HALTON residents are being asked to express opinions on a future location for the county’s archives.

They are currently held at the Cheshire Record Office, a former warehouse in Duke Street, Chester, where anyone is welcome to visit.

Storage space is so limited that the building cannot accommodate all the archives in its care, let alone provide the required expansion space for the next 20 years.

Environmental conditions do not meet current standards and the record office is no longer considered fit for purpose by the National Archives as home for one of Britain’s finest collections of historical records.

Consequently, the service is currently considering alternative locations at Chester, Ellesmere Port, Winsford, Northwich, Crewe and Middlewich.

The service is run by Cheshire Shared Services on the behalf of all the Cheshire councils.

Officers are hosting a drop-in session on Wednesday, June 25, from 2pm- 4pm at Widnes Library, where people can pick up a consultation form and have a chat.

This is an opportunity to find out more about the archives and local studies service and about Halton’s own archives.

The archives date from the 12th to the 21st century and range from medieval deeds to digital photographs from the 21st century.

There are 710 cubic metres of archives, plus tens of thousands of books, maps and photographs.

The consultation runs until June 30. Anyone wishing to comment is invited to visit archives.cheshire.gov.uk.