SIR - When the announcement was made that Bradford had been selected as City of Culture 2025 members of the Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society felt a surge of pride.

Many suggestions were made as to what input we might have in the city’s activities, and initial work was done towards submitting suggestions to those in charge. Sadly, it was soon intimated to us in an indirect way that our understanding of “heritage” was not going to be included as “culture”. Therefore, our plans and our overall enthusiasm for this prestigious event plummeted, and most people in the society have lost interest.

However, what we hadn’t foreseen was that Bradford Council has agreed to sell Margaret McMillan Tower as part of its money raising/saving exercise. The ground floor of this building houses two very important organisations. One is the Council’s Local Studies Library and the other is the Bradford office of the West Yorkshire Archive Service. Both contain large sources of information for people carrying out personal and professional research, and some of the WYAS information is not available anywhere else.

The Archives have already closed to the public, and Local Studies will be closing some time in the near future. As far as we know no alternative accommodation has yet been confirmed.

So, in the lead-up to our great City of Culture 2025, the opportunity for anyone to do research into the city’s history and achievements has virtually disappeared. We sincerely hope that the Council, in its plans for 2025, has thought other things through in much better ways than it has in this respect.

Geoff Twentyman, General Secretary, Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society