Herne Hill Velodrome Closure Threat - Save the Velodrome!

ps. I don't own a suit. nor do I advocate employing wastes of space.

Great meeting - very positive.

As someone who used to estimate crowd sizes as part of my job, I would say there were 500 there. Superb bike parking facility, but nowhere near full, although there were a lot of bikes locked to railings. It was quite funny passing the long queue of cars waiting to get out afterwards.

I think it was a mistake for DE not to turn up. I think they'd have been able to get their case across. I don't think it was booing, so much as laughter when it was announced that no one would be there.

DE are in a bit of a bind. They want to have some certainty about the future of the site. But, as a charitable trust, they would be acting ultra vires if they granted a long lease to a scheme or group which couldn't demonstrate a sustainable model.

To be fair, the figures presented (very realistic, IMO) don't really offer a fully sustainable model, until we factor in about 40% of donations IIRC. The revenue gap is on top of the issue of raising £190000 for track renovation and godknosewot for restoring the grandstand and erecting more buildings to support some of the other functions suggested.

But it is all doable, and the turnout last night proves that people and the relevant institutions do care.

Then it's very lucky that existing members of the campaign and also VCL are management consultants with experience in the industry they need to form a BP for.

Yeah sorry about that Rob, I'm a bit grumpy this morning.

^The message is firmly about this being up to the community to solve, which is fair, because it's the community's facility. It's great to see so many stepping up to the plate.

Far too often people take the sidelines and expect the ubiquitous "them" to do something about these situations, but "they" being councils, landowners etc rarely bother. Look at the other derelict places around the UK.

The funding gap has some margin for contention IMO, though the figures are largely fair, there's room for movement.
It's not really the point at the moment though, I am on a low wage but would pay £50 per year to keep the velodrome as I'm sure many others would, as Tony Doyle did say, "use it or lose it".

I couldn't hear what DE were saying through the video link. The problem is that they only grant one year leases so the council can't get funding etc. Have they pledged to change this?

O rly? :S

They pledged to back the campaign and to give the committee what they wanted as long as there was a sustainable business model... Quite a bit of wiggle room there, if you ask me...

Was chatting to a couple of cyclists on the way into work this morning, one was at the meeting and the other couldn't make it but was very keen to find out what had happened... There's a lot of love for the old place... I think everything'll be fine, looking forward to help make this happen...

£60k PLEDGED and over 700 ATTENDED the big meeting!
£35k came from attendees and local businesses, £25k came from Southwark council

and the online form isn't up yet. let's hope this continues after the lease is granted

O rly? :S

They pledged to back the campaign and to give the committee what they wanted as long as there was a sustainable business model... Quite a bit of wiggle room there, if you ask me...

Was chatting to a couple of cyclists on the way into work this morning, one was at the meeting and the other couldn't make it but was very keen to find out what had happened... There's a lot of love for the old place... I think everything'll be fine, looking forward to help make this happen...

Ah, so in summary, HH needs a sustainable business model and in order to do that needs £200k for redeveloping, then DE will grant lease, then council will back, and HH saved.

Is this about the size of it?
Do we then need a MASSIVE pledge / fund raising scheme?

If there really is only a £50k shortfall, I'm sure business sponsorship as well as charitable donations from private individuals would cover it... £50k is not a great deal of money... I figured British Cycling would be covering this...

And are BC covering costs for the new track surface? How about restoring the other buildings? Or would this all be done in partnership with the committee?

So many questions...

There were a number of issues

1. A long lease is needed to obtain capital funding
   
2. A long lease will only be given if a business plan exists that shows sustainablity
   
3. For sustainability income is required.
   
   

The business plan shows £70k pa can be earned by the velodrome. £125k pa is required to run it. A shortfall of £55k pa. They are seeking to cover this with individual and business donations and sponsorship. If they can show that they can attract this sort of sum, they can look to obtaining a long lease and then funding for capital works. Last night was just about the annual funding shortfall. I am not sure how they intend to go about covering the capital costs. I was also unclear about the £25k from Southwark and wherther this was a one off towards capital improvements of part of the annual funding. If the latter, it should not be taken for granted that it will recur.

what? wankers in suits with clipboards trying to look busy and justify their fee?

it just needs those already involved in running activities at the club to work out what activities are going to be run, what immediate repair work and future repair work needs to be done and the costs involved over the length of the lease. then what funding is available.
it's not rocket science.

were you there? they said, DE won't give them a long lease unless they have a good business plan. giving that the people running the campaign are local residents and probably know fuck all about how to run a profitable business plan, and that this is the first step to getting the long lease, i think it would be a rather efficient way of getting out of this clusterfuck. without a long lease, the track won't be resurfaced, the insurance won't be renewed, and it'll close for good, and they'll only get a long lease with a profitable business plan. so there.

edit: seeing that rob said VCL are the people who know how to make a business plan disregard the external consultants thing. whoever it is they need to do it soon.

were you there? they said, DE won't give them a long lease unless they have a good business plan. giving that the people running the campaign are local residents and probably know fuck all about how to run a profitable business plan, and that this is the first step to getting the long lease, i think it would be a rather efficient way of getting out of this clusterfuck. without a long lease, the track won't be resurfaced, the insurance won't be renewed, and it'll close for good, and they'll only get a long lease with a profitable business plan. so there.

edit: seeing that rob said VCL are the people who know how to make a business plan disregard the external consultants thing. whoever it is they need to do it soon.

i wasn't there but know plenty of people who were.

i wouldn't dismiss the local residents so easily, from what i hear they were very well organised and had several people who were used to lobbying/organising campaigns and professional P.R. those 3/4million pound houses surrounding the site don't usually get bought by people without a bit of business acumen.

velo libre

The chairman of the meeting is a QC of some experience. They have a good number of well connected people on the committee. Burbage Road is not cheap. People afford houses there by being competent in business. I would prefer to rely on that mob to achieve something than on a bunch of well meaning cyclists.

i wasn't there but know plenty of people who were.

i did not mean in a "you weren't there you should have shown support" way, rather just so i knew if we had interpreted things differently.

velo libre

The chairman of the meeting is a QC of some experience. They have a good number of well connected people on the committee. Burbage Road is not cheap. People afford houses there by being competent in business. I would prefer to rely on that mob to achieve something than on a bunch of well meaning cyclists.

why are you assuming that i said cyclists should be running the show? i have no doubt in the abilities of the committee as it currently is. i said that local residents who are not cyclists probably don't know that much about creating a sustainable business plan that is based on cycling. as rob said, VCL have been running the thing for the past few years so should probably be involved in creating one, but i don't remember anyone on the committee saying who was going to come up with the business plan, or any mention of VCL being involved with anything. that the public lack of this plan, which seems what it is currently resting on, should probably be a larger issue than they made it out to be.

Peter Cattermole is on the committee. I have every faith in a committee of which he is a member.

Also, from the presentation last night, and in particular the costings, it appeared that the business plan was largely written and that they are now simply looking to ensure that the donations are tangible and looking to flesh out a couple of ideas for income producing activities.

i have no doubt in the abilities of the committee as it currently is.

...?

i don't remember any mention of VCL being involved with anything.

Peter Cattermole.

And presumably the entire committee is producing the plan including Peter Cattermole.

I hope the business plan has a bit more flesh on it that what was shown last night. That did not look anything like a business plan to me, nor did it look viable.

That ^^ wasn't meant to sound as snidey as it does - I genuinely want the velodrome to be saved and think the people working on this have done a marvellous job in raising awareness.

The business plan shows £70k pa can be earned by the velodrome. £125k pa is required to run it. A shortfall of £55k pa. .

i think they really should have paid some consultants to make up some better figures than this.

Will, I am not sure they have the money to pay consultants. One disturbing item was that admin is set to cost more than coaching.

Awards for All could cover the costs of a consultation exercise, feasibility study, contribute towards some of the BP costs, admin etc. Southwark can be badgered to pay for some of those costs too, on top of their current grant?

Following the agreement of Maz Lewis who made the documentary 'Good Friday' which was show at last years BFF and is all about Herne Hill we will be making the November showing of the HBFS a Save the Velodrome showing details at http://www.hackney-cyclists.org.uk/diary10.htm

Incidentally the October showing on Monday is two films about bike messengers in Uganda and China.

Zeb

Will, I am not sure they have the money to pay consultants. One disturbing item was that admin is set to cost more than coaching.

PC is already a very good and experienced management consultant, it was his line of work before BC.

Not sure about admin costing more than coaching, but the running of the facility really needs to follow the current model (which is successful but limited by the state of the venue) and not revert back to how it was when Southwark council were in control as that was what started the rot. There is no sense in paying 2x + salaries for people to sit in an office and drink tea (although it would be nice)