Dorset's joint archives service will suffer another stand-still budget for the coming financial year.

The flat-line budget, of £550,000, has been at a standstill for six of the last seven years and, overall, represents a cut of more than 22 per cent when measured against inflation since 2012/13.

The Dorchester-based history centre now has half the staff it had in 2006 and is one of the cheapest archives to run in the country.

The year has been made worse by lost income in fees, of around £11,000, due to Covid restrictions, and an increase in its business rates of £3,000.

Members of the joint advisory board, councillors from Dorset Council and the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council, were told that the centre had been unable to make any claims from government funding for additional Covid costs and losses.

The only way the shortfall can be made up in the year ahead is to take around £20,000 from reserve funds.

On the plus side work to make the building as energy passive as possible has saved around 80 per cent of previous costs, amounting to savings of £20,000 in the year.

Dorchester councillor, Richard Biggs, warned the advisory board that continually cutting the budget would have consequences and suggested asking for a modest rise.

He said that the centre, which was now nearing its maximum storage capacity, desperately need an increase in its budget.

"How the staff have managed to keep going and offer a service throughout the pandemic is wonderful and a credit to everyone involved," he said.

A consultant's report on proposals to expand the archive is expected in the coming weeks.

It will look at the options for delivering extra space, either by a £2m extension to the existing building, or leasing specialist storage space out of the county.

Sam Johnston, service manager for archives, told the meeting that storage capacity for the 30-year-old centre will soon be reached with only 3,500 box spaces available. If the expansion option at Dorchester can be funded it would provide 25-30 years' additional storage.

He said that among the archives waiting were those from the nine previous Dorset councils. During the year the service has received collections relating to Thomas Hardy and William Barnes, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Beales of Bournemouth, when the business closed down.

Board chairman Cllr Iyengar Mohan described the additional demands as "an opportunity and a problem." He praised the centre's small team of 11 full and part-timers and its volunteers for keeping the centre going as well as they could "in most extraordinary circumstances".