The National Library of Wales has been granted an extension to begin work on multi-million pound plans to house the BBC Wales archives at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth that were paused due to a lack of funding.

The National Library applied to Ceredigion County Council for a time extension to previously-granted plans for the scheme to house BBC Wales archives in a special extension, as funding was lost as a result of the Covid pandemic.

The 2018 application – together with a fairly standard condition five-year period for the works to start – was granted in November of that year, but funds set aside for the project had to be used for emergency purposes to allow the Library to continue to operate during the pandemic lockdowns.

The brief for the National Broadcast Archive building is to provide environmentally controlled, high -density storage for 750 cubic metres of archive material with approximately 25 per cent of the volume being refrigerated.

The site for the archive is slated to be to the rear of the site, attached to the third library building and adjacent to the outstore.

The application for a time extension says that “the development has been temporarily postponed until sufficient new funding becomes available,” adding that “design work is complete and ready to go to tender.”