3. What this session covers
• Quick overview
• Project Enquiry stage
• Your application to HLF
• Hints and tips
• Working with applicant during the assessment
period
• Post award - HLF Mentors
4. Parks and Cemeteries in London
1995-2013
• Total Spend: £133m
• BIG contribution: £22m
• HLF Spend: £111m
• One cemetery supported prior to support for
Brompton Cemetery last December
• This was Hampstead Cemetery £1.08m
(Urban Parks Programme in 1997)
5. The Application Process:
Project Enquiry Stage
•Spend time reading the Parks Guidance
•Submit on line form via HLF website
•Visit by the Development Team
•Dialogue and feedback
•Budget check – development and delivery
•Timetable for assessment
6. The Application Process:
Telling us about your project by
filling in the HLF Parks
application form and providing
supporting information
7. Stick to the check list
at the back of the HLF
application form
and keep your
answers simple and
factual
Conveying a
clear vision
8. • Clarity
• Read across documents
• Address check list in full
• A robust budget N.B. VAT, Contingency,
Inflation
• Partnership Funding
A few tips……
9. A few tips…..
• What is the position now and what are the targets
post delivery e.g. visitors, target audiences
• Management and Maintenance
• Friends Groups and your local community
• Stakeholders
• Governance – inc a strong project team with the right
experience and expertise
16. Working with your HLF officer
• There will usually be further questions during
assessment – a quick turnaround is appreciated
• Send answers in one tranche and in same order
they were asked
• There may be an informal site visit by officers
18. More about the application process
• It is very competitive
• Before going to the Board, your case will be
considered by the London Committee who make
recommendations to the Board
• A presentation will be made to both Committee and
Board
• The decision will be conveyed 48 hours later
• If you don’t get through first time and are being
encouraged to try again, don’t let the decision get you
down, listen to feedback and go for it!
• If you are successful, don’t waste time (2 years goes
very quickly) – start filling out your Permission to
Start Forms and get a meeting in the diary
20. • Submitted R1 bid August 2013 (3-month turnaround)
• Questions and points of clarification/ Informal Site
Visit
• HLF Board decision in December 2013
• Up to 2 year development period allowed (RIBA D)
• Appointment of HLF Mentors
• Permission to start in January 2014
• RIBA C review in August 2014
• Aim to submit R2 in February 2015 for June 2015
decision (3-month turnaround inc formal site visit)
Timetable for Brompton Cemetery
21. HLF Mentors
• Why do HLF appoint mentors?
• What is their role?
• Common areas for Mentor support:
conservation, Activity Planning, Business
Planning, Technical
22. To sum up:
• A clear vision
• Factual information
• Stick to the questions on the application form
• Address the checklist and give us some great
images to sell your project!
• A committed and strong project team with
appropriate support from the organisation
23. Challenges for Cemeteries
• Buildings at risk – and their reuse
• Conservation costs
• Ownership models
• Biodiversity versus tidy
• Bereavement sensitivities
• On-going revenue and sustainability
Title slide
Only make the top line of the title bold
Use the font sizes and style as set
Title slide
Only make the top line of the title bold
Use the font sizes and style as set
Title slide
Only make the top line of the title bold
Use the font sizes and style as set
Title slide
Only make the top line of the title bold
Use the font sizes and style as set
So to revisit Lucy’s slide earlier …..Restoration of chapels often at centre of application, highest cost. Mixed use buildings – community access is important, learning and activities hub, plus generate income. Sensitivities about a chapel becoming a café?
Funds could also be swallowed up by restoring other built heritage – lodges, memorials, catacombs, or paths, plus new builds if you have no building to re-use. Big London cemeteries face massive backlog of repairs – where do you start? Phase work, identify priorities.
Some LA aim to transfer ownership to community groups, trusts with no commitment to future grant funding/maintaining site. Model may work for some – see Arnos Vale – but for others with low/no reserves, could be high risk.
Local people see biodiversity value especially in cities. A fine balance between the site’s nature/wildlife, historic features at risk, a cemetery looking too ‘groomed’ and loosing it’s unique atmosphere. Explore this and develop further through grant, acknowledging balance.
A cemetery is not a park – you can have concerts, cinema, café and play areas, but it’s also a place for bereavement, contemplation and peace. Ask local people what they want – the results may also surprise you.
Also cemeteries have advantages and disadvantages in raising income. Can hire buildings, run events, lease to concessions etc – but also grave reuse, natural burial areas, ongoing burials. More to be explored on this area – HLF doesn't have the full answer, experience, case studies to draw on but will commission new research this year.
We want cemeteries sector to engage in debate about successful business models.
