Badajoz debuts the regulations governing its municipal archive system

The Badajoz City Council has definitively approved the Municipal Archive System Regulations, the rule that governs the management, conservation, and citizen access to municipal documentation. The full text is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Badajoz No. 182, corresponding to Wednesday, September 23, 2026, under Announcement 3691/2026. It shall enter into force on the day following its publication, according to the third final provision of the regulations themselves.

The Plenary of the Badajoz City Council, in an ordinary session on July 23, 2026, initially approved the regulations and, as no allegations were presented within the legal period, the text is definitively approved in accordance with articles 70.2 and 65.2 of Law 7/1985, of April 2, regulating the Bases of the Local Regime. The announcement is signed by the Mayor-President, Ignacio Gragera Barrera.

The regulation is based on articles 44 and 105.b of the Spanish Constitution, which recognize the right to culture and access to archives, and develops at the local level the obligations of custody and dissemination imposed by Law 2/2007, of April 12, on Archives and Documentary Heritage of Extremadura. The regulations consist of 37 articles distributed across five titles and occupy 17 pages of the provincial gazette.

An archive system in four parts

The regulations define the Municipal Archive of Badajoz as the City Council’s specialized unit for documentary management, dependent in ownership and management on the Department of Culture. The municipal archive system is composed of:

• The Documentary Valuation Commission.
• The Office Archives of each service and administrative unit.
• The Intermediate Administrative Archive.
• The Municipal Historical Archive.

To these is added the single Electronic Archive, a secure repository for electronic files and documents with their metadata, electronic signatures, and timestamps, in accordance with article 17 of Law 39/2015 and article 46 of Law 40/2015.

Retention periods are set at a maximum of five years in office archives, 30 years in the Intermediate Administrative Archive, and an average of 35 years in the Historical Archive. Ordinary transfers will be carried out when at least five years have passed since the completion of the administrative processing.

The Documentary Valuation Commission

The new technical body will be responsible for studying documentary series and controlling the life cycle of documents, from their creation to their definitive conservation or destruction. Its composition is as follows:

• Presidency: the Mayor-President or the person to whom they delegate.
• Vice-presidency: the Head of the Culture Service.
• Secretariat: the General Secretary of the City Council.
• Members: the Municipal Archivist, a technician from the Municipal Archive, the Head of the Information and Communications Service, the Chief Legal Counsel, and a tenured professor from the Archival Science area of the University of Extremadura.

The Commission shall meet ordinarily once a year and shall prepare the Transfer Schedule, the appraisal tables, and the Conservation and Access Calendar. No service may destroy original documents without its prior approval.

Citizen access and limits

The funds of the Historical Archive are freely accessible, subject to legal limitations, and may be consulted in person in the researchers’ room or electronically in the digitized documents repository. The user must complete a prior request which will be incorporated into the Archive’s User Registry.

The regulations restrict access to documentation containing specially protected data: express consent from the affected parties will be required, or the passage of 25 years since their death, or 50 years from the date of the documents. Direct consultation of originals will also be denied to those who have been convicted by a final judgment for crimes against the security and conservation of documentary heritage.

Copies for research or dissemination without commercial purposes shall be free of charge, while commercial or editorial use will require authorization via a resolution from the Mayor’s Office, following a report from the Municipal Archive.

Deposits, exhibitions, and dissemination

Extraordinary acquisitions through purchase, legacy, donation, or deposit shall require a formal agreement from the competent municipal body, upon the proposal of the Delegated Department of Culture and with a report from the municipal archivist, and shall be formalized through a deposit contract, collaboration agreement, or delivery act. The temporary removal of documents for exhibitions will require a request at least two months in advance, an all-risk insurance policy, and the applicant shall bear the costs of packaging and transport.

The Historical Archive also assumes a dissemination function through guided tours, open house days, courses, conferences, publications, and exhibitions, as well as specialized training for municipal staff and citizens.

The relevance of the regulation is twofold: on one hand, it provides the municipality with a stable framework to preserve its documentary heritage and avoid uncontrolled destruction; on the other, it turns the archive into an accessible service for researchers and residents, with clear rules on deadlines, loans, and reproductions.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Badajoz, no. 182 of September 23, 2026, Local Administration, pages 1-17 (official reference: Announcement 3691/2026).