ABC Council is to buy two new cabinets – at a cost of £4,000 – to store important papers linked with previous plans to create the ‘new city’ of Craigavon.
The Northern Ireland Museums’ Council has agreed to fund £1,000 – which is 25 per cent of the overall costs – towards buying two seven-drawer ‘map cabinets’.
Officers from the Craigavon Museum Services had applied for the grant assistance to help with the preservation storage of paper items in its current collection and future acquisitions.
The “need for new map cabinets” had been increased by the offer of a donation from Collen Bros Ltd., a Portadown based construction company.
This was relayed to the ABC Council’s economic development and regeneration committee earlier this month.
Around 200 items have been offered for donation that principally comprise of residential, commercial and infrastructural plans and other documents.
These relate to the construction of the ‘new city’ of Craigavon in the 1960s and 1970s.
Committee, in a report, was informed: “Acceptance of this donation will augment the existing Craigavon Development Commission archive held by the Craigavon Museum Services which is of local and national importance.
“We have now received confirmation that our application was successful and the NIMC have agreed to offer a total of £1,000 for the purchase of two map cabinets for the preservation of paper artefacts in Craigavon Museum Services’ collection.”
The NIMC grant is for a quarter of the total costs, with the committee agreeing to fund the remainder.
This £3,000 will come from the Craigavon Museum Services existing operational budget.
