Councillor David Smith’s claim that “all the research resources of the Brighton History Centre are 100% secure” and that they will continue to be available at the Jubilee Library beggars belief (Letters, December 28).

For a start the all-important expertise of the staff at the centre will indeed be “scrapped” as The Argus headline put it, since their jobs are to be axed.

And where will the Jubilee Library find space to continue to make available the dozens of map, microfiche and microfilm cases, the banks of film readers and computers and the miles of shelving holding the paper resources at the centre?

No more credible is Coun Smith’s assurance that this will be only for two years. The new record office planned for Falmer has been refused money from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The plans for it have yet to be drawn up and submitted for planning permission. And if in the present climate Brighton cannot afford £60,000 to keep the history centre open how is it going to find the £5.2 million contribution it agreed to make to the new record office?

The fear must be that far from remaining accessible, many of the resources of the centre will be packed away for years to come and perhaps for ever.

Though even that is not the worst possibility. Proper storage of such archive material also costs money and since these unique resources will no longer be in the care of specialist staff who understand their value, there is a real danger that many will simply be weeded out and disposed of.

Former Brightonians travel from all over the world to visit this centre and research their family backgrounds.

Our city trades on its heritage and it is short-sighted for the council to close down access to this unique collection and imperil its future to save what is a comparatively small sum.

Robert Doe, Surrenden Crescent, Brighton