Heritage
Lottery Fund project update
The
last Newsletter reported the decision to defer our round-2
application to the Heritage Lottery Fund from November 2016, to allow
time for closing the funding gap caused by higher than expected
building costs. Many thanks to patrons and members who made
donations for this purpose. We are also grateful to the Community
Funds of Cumbria County Council and the Lake District National Park
Authority, which both made further grants towards additional
consultancy fees incurred between November and the final submission
date. The remaining cost was covered by the contingency allowance
and some underspent areas in our HLF round-1 budget.
To
increase our prospective income, we raised the amounts of
match-funding sought from Copeland Community Fund to £75,000, and
from LEADER (part of the EU Rural
Development Programme for England) to £36,000.
We made an entirely new application for £50,000 to the H B Allen
Charitable Trust. We also increased the amount applied for from
HLF by £72,000 to £792,000, but as this figure does not exceed the
estimate given at round-1 by more than 10%, are hopeful that they
will find it acceptable. On this basis, 83% of the project would be
funded by HLF. Thanks as always to Shirley Muir Associates, our
project organisers, for their invaluable help in revising the budget
and making these funding applications, and to all of our consultancy
team, who (almost) all delivered their respective briefs on time and
within budget.
Meanwhile,
our architect Peter Kempsey of Countryside Consultants and his team
were busy looking for and costing ways of reducing expenditure, by
cutting some items altogether and changing the specification for
others, particularly on the refurbishment of the cottage. We believe
this has been achieved without damaging the sustainability of the
project as a whole. In fact, some of the economies proved to be
improvements. However, there is still a concern around some external
works, which will have to be either completed by volunteers or
differently funded, possibly as part of a wider grounds management
plan.
The total project cost is just over £1
million, of which building costs account for about £700,000,
including professional fees and VAT. Activity costs – training,
interpretation, learning, marketing and evaluation – are about
£250,000 on the same basis.
All
the applications were submitted by early February. All four, in
particular the HLF application, are complex documents supported by
voluminous appendices, presented in different ways according to the
funders’ requirements. They represent a huge amount of work by
trustees and consultants. Results of the match-funding applications
will be known by the time this Newsletter goes out, but we will not
hear from HLF until June.
Originally
it was thought that, if we are successful, this would be too late to
tender contracts and begin building work in 2017, but it is now hoped
that internal work may continue over next winter, after making a
start on external jobs in the autumn.
All
the funding applications are competitive; succeeding in full with all
four is a big ask. Through our professional advisers, we have a good
idea of our strengths and weaknesses. What if we fail ? We may be
looking for other sources of match-funding. HLF is probably
irreplaceable as the main funder, but if the answer is not the one we
want, feedback will tell us what more must be done to make our
application acceptable. But for now we wait and hope.
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