Business Plan

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Business Plan DRAFT Appendix B Southwark Discovery Centre Business Plan DRAFT London Borough of Southwark Discovery Centre Business Plan November 2005 DRAFT Contents Contents .........................................................................................................2 1 Executive Summary ............................................................................4 2 Project Summary.................................................................................5 2.1 Introduction to the Project 5 2.2 The Need for the Centre – Our Six to Fix 7 2.3 Location of the New Facility 9 2.4 The Public Benefits of the Project 9 2.5 Revenue Estimates 11 2.6 The Risks Facing the Project 12 3 About the organisation .....................................................................14 3.1 When and Why it was Started 14 3.2 Purpose and aims 14 3.3 Council Partners and Other Local Groups 15 3.4 Organisational Structure 15 3.5 The Southwark Heritage Services Unit. 16 3.6 Role of Paid Staff 20 3.7 Successful Funding Bids 20 3.8 Funding Regular Activities 23 4 Development of the Project..............................................................24 4.1 The history of the Walworth Road Town Hall building 24 4.2 The Development of the Project So Far 24 5 Strategic background........................................................................28 5.1 The Aims of the Project 28 5.2 Borough History 30 5.3 The Need in Southwark 31 5.4 The Proposal 31 5.5 Relation To Council Priorities 33 5.6 Relation to Council Strategies 34 5.7 Links to National and Regional Priorities 36 5.8 Southwark Tourism and Attractions 37 6 Project details....................................................................................39 6.1 Southwark Discovery Centre Concept 39 6.2 Why is there a need for a new facility? 40 6.3 What will the new facility provide? 41 6.4 Principles guiding the project's development: 42 6.5 The Challenge 43 6.6 The Context 43 6.7 The Project 44 6.8 Building uses 44 6.9 Space Requirements 45 6.10 Capital Costs 46 6.11 Development Costs 48 6.12 Outline of Funding Strategy 49 6.13 Whole Life Costs 50 6.14 Project Plan 51 7 Business Case for the Discovery Centre – Interaction with the One Stop Shop.....................................................................................................54 7.1 Context 54 Discovery Centre 2 November 2005 Business Plan DRAFT 7.2 How the One Stop Shop and Discovery Centre will work together 54 8 The Market .........................................................................................57 8.1 Market Analysis & Catchments Area 57 8.2 Potential Catchments Population 57 8.3 Demographic Profile 57 8.4 Catchment population – by age 58 8.5 Catchment population – by socio-economic grouping 58 8.6 Estimated visitor market within the local catchment area 59 8.7 Current Users Statistics 60 8.8 Estimated visitor market within the local catchment area 60 8.9 Comparative analysis 60 8.10 Estimating Visitor Demand 63 9 Financial Appraisal ...........................................................................66 9.1 Cashflow Projections and Financial Viability 66 9.2 Summary of Financial Appraisal 66 9.3 Revenue Estimates 67 9.4 Income Assumptions 67 9.5 Operating Expenditure Assumptions 69 9.6 Summary of Operating Income and Expenditure 71 9.7 Summary of sensitivity analysis at plus and minus 5 and 10 per cent 72 10 Management and staff ......................................................................75 10.1 Current Staffing Structure 75 10.2 Project Management Structure 75 10.3 Outline of Operational Structure 77 11 Assessing Risk..................................................................................82 12 Monitoring and Evaluation ...............................................................86 12.1 Approach to Evaluation 86 12.2 Use of the Southwark PROMPT System 86 12.3 Design Reviews 87 12.4 User Needs 88 12.5 Risk Register 88 12.6 Critical Success Factors 88 Discovery Centre 3 November 2005 Business Plan DRAFT 1 Executive Summary 2.1. This Business Plan for the Southwark Discovery Centre sets out projections for attendance, income and expenditure for the first ten years after opening, scheduled for 2009. It also deals with costs incurred in setting up the project before opening. The aim of this Business Plan is to demonstrate the feasibility of meeting the capital requirements for the development of the Centre and to present a forecast of the sustainability of the Southwark Discovery Centre once it is open. The Business Plan and financial model will be developed in more detail as the Project proceeds over the next twelve months. 2.2 The assessment of the concept and initial demand and viability considerations concludes that The Southwark Discovery Centre represents a significant opportunity for Southwark. What is proposed is a unique centre that builds upon the achievements already made by Southwark Heritage Services. The concept both meets the needs of the Southwark community, would satisfy existing and future demand for cultural/learning provision, and provide a key visitor experience as part of the regeneration of the Elephant & Castle. 2.3 Financially the initial model indicates the centre to be viable based on a mature visitor demand of 100,000 visitors. This level of visitors has been set within the context of the visitor dynamics of Southwark and we believe is a realistic figure. Since visitor revenues provide only one element of income for The Southwark Discovery Centre, it has the potential to be less sensitive to visitor fluctuations than other purely visitor-based centres. This cross subsidy of uses provides a sustainable approach to development. 2.4 The project will require revenue support, as most centres of this kind do. However, the experience of Southwark Heritage Services in fund raising leads us to believe that The Southwark Discovery Centre would successfully raise revenue from a variety of sources. This suggests that the strong concept of The Southwark Discovery Centre be taken forward to Heritage Lottery Fund Stage 1 bid by November 2005 seeking development funding to proceed to stage 2 during 2006. Discovery Centre 4 November 2005 Business Plan DRAFT 2 Project Summary 2.1 Introduction to the Project Southwark has been at the heart of London for over two thousand years, contributing significantly to the economy, prosperity and status of the capital as a ‘world city’. Southwark is one of the most dynamic and diverse parts of one of the most diverse cities in the world. It is a microcosm of London with 35% BME communities, 100 plus languages, extremes of poverty and wealth and low levels of educational attainment. While Southwark is improving economically and visually and its cultural diversity is beginning to be celebrated by many no organisation adequately tells the untold stories of the diverse communities that make up Southwark and their role in helping to shape London as a world city and makes this accessible to the people of Southwark and visitors alike. Our current heritage provision consists of a number of small services as follows: • The Cuming Museum, containing worldwide collections and Southwark’s Local History Museum; • Southwark Local History Library and Archives; • The South London Gallery – a cutting edge contemporary art gallery with an international profile and a significant historic collection of works of art; • The Livesey Museum for Children – the UK’s first hands-on museum for children which involves local children in the running of the Museum; • And the Associated Education and Outreach Services – formal and informal learning for learners of all ages. These facilities are plagued with problems: • Only a small part of the nationally significant resources are ever available, making them physically inaccessible to the communities in Southwark. • The storage space at the existing facilities is entirely inadequate, stifling any future growth of collections, and failing to meet modern standards putting significant museum, archive and art collections at risk. • There is a complete lack of dedicated education spaces available, with the result that the ability of our resources to inspire young and old is undermined. Discovery Centre 5 November 2005 Business Plan DRAFT • The facilities are poorly placed to make the most of the opportunity to attract visitors to the area and inadequately reflect the diversity and dynamism of contemporary and historic Southwark. These factors deny us the opportunity to fulfil our potential, which otherwise would be assured. In spite of these weaknesses the current facilities: • Have won awards for the quality of their educational work; • Attract more school visits (11,500) than any other London local authority service and have seen a 500% increase in numbers of schools (primarily local) using the facilities, even after the opening of attractions such as the Tate Modern and the Globe; • Have a growing reputation for innovative outreach work with diverse audiences, the Service as a whole draws over 40% of its users from black and minority ethnic communities; Unlocking the full potential of these services both in terms of learning, and attracting visitors to Southwark, is constrained by poor quality, quantity and accessibility of the current spaces in which they operate. An injection of capital investment to improve the facilities offered is the key to resolving these barriers to access for local people and visitors. The Southwark Discovery Centre Project will create a dynamic new cultural heritage centre and museum
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