NATIONAL Library chiefs have lodged a multi-million-pound planning application to house BBC Wales archives in a new four-storey extension.

The proposed National Broadcast Archive would be housed in a newly built extension linked with the third library building through a link bridge, and the National Library has submitted an application for planing permission.

The scheme would cost around £9m and has attracted funding from the National Lottery that could be worth as much as £5m.

While the archive would not be open to the public, it would store material that will be digitised and made available by BBC Wales.

It would lead to a range of changes to the site, with a current existing staircase at the east end of the out store building being demolished and replaced by a new staircase. There would also be the demolition of an existing brick boundary wall surrounding the external chiller plant compound, as well as new cladding to the exterior of the current machine house at the north end of the third library building.

An access statement lodged as part of the planning application says: “The proposed National Broadcast Archive will not be accessible to the general public. None of the material that will be stored in the National Broadcast Archive is expected to be retrieved except in rare circumstances.

“The reason for this is that all of the material will be digitised and made accessible for public use by BBC Wales via digital media before it is put into archive storage.”

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