FINANCIAL backing has been given to a £5million expansion of the Dorset History Centre in Dorchester – ensuring the second phase of a Lottery bid goes ahead.

Dorset Council will, effectively, act as guarantor to the project which, if successful, will unlock £3.8million of Heritage Lottery Fund cash from a final bid to be submitted in November next year.

The centre looks after many important records including papers from Thomas Hardy and William Barnes and the records of local councils and organisations such as Wessex Water.

Dorchester councillor Richard Biggs said the centre was "a huge resource for people around the world" containing many of Dorset's important records, including from Dorset Council, former Dorset councils and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council.

He said he remembered the completion of the Bridport Road building in 1991 because he worked on it as a contracting electrician.

Since then the Centre has almost run out of storage space and faced the prospect of having to hire storage space outside of the county had the funding not been found to expand.

Cllr Biggs said that the first phase of the proposals, preparing the bid, had cost more than £683,000.

Dorset Council is committed to £548,000 of the building costs with other donors adding to the fund, including £10,000 from Dorchester Town Council which had recently doubled the commitment it had previous made.

The final cost of the expansion project is expected to be around £5.3million and will add another 30 year storage space, extending the life of the centre by decades.

Cllr Bigg said the History Centre was confident of finding the budget gap of £110,000 by fundraising from a variety of sources. but if that was not successful the council would step in.

The project has three key aims – to build a a new two-storey repository block accommodating around 22,000 boxes of physical archives adjacent and linked to the current building; improve the public spaces including a new entrance and reception area and deliver a major programme of public engagement focussing on collections and audiences, building partnerships and long-term collaboration.