Nottingham-based Focus Consultants has been appointed lead consultant on a project to create an internationally significant transport heritage attraction.
The company is involved in a major scheme to redevelop Coventry Transport Museum, which has just received initial support for a £4.9m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
Project plans include a major redevelopment of the museum’s exhibition spaces and the conservation and revitalisation of the city’s Old Grammar School to bring it back into public use.
The 14th Century, Grade 1 listed Old Grammar School, which is on English Heritage’s At Risk Register, is to be conserved and restored to house a public access archive and educational facility.
Focus Consultants, with offices at Phoenix Business Park, Nottingham, Endeavour Park, Boston, Princess Road East, Leicester, Aubourn, Lincoln, and Holborn, London, is providing project management services for the proposed scheme.
The museum houses the largest collection of British road transport in the world – with more than 249 motor vehicles, 450 cycles, 120 motorcycles and well over 1,000,000 archival items.
“We are proud to be working on the Coventry Transport Museum scheme, and delighted to hear that the Heritage Lottery Fund has given the plans its initial support,” said Focus Consultants partner Kevin Osbon.
“Focus Consultants has significant experience of securing funding for heritage and leisure projects. We have worked on many key developments across the UK, including the recently opened SeaCity Museum in Southampton and Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, which opened at the end of last year, and which was recently named UK museum of the year by the Art Fund charity.
“This is an exciting project, not just for Coventry but for the wider transport heritage world too, as the transport museum is of international significance.”
Focus Consultants is now working with the rest of the team on the next stage of the Heritage Lottery Fund bid.
A first-round pass means the project meets HLF criteria for funding and HLF believes the project has potential to deliver high-quality benefits and value for Lottery money.
The application for Coventry Transport Museum and the Old Grammar School was in competition with other supportable projects, so a first-round pass is an endorsement of outline proposals.
Having been awarded a first-round pass, the project now has up to two years to submit fully developed proposals to compete for a firm award. On occasion, an applicant with a first-round pass will also be awarded development funding towards the development of their scheme.
Focus Consultants specialises in creative approaches to securing funding packages and delivering high quality projects across the UK.
Since its creation in 1994, Focus has secured over £800 million of grant assistance, and delivered more than £1 billion of projects and programmes - including enterprise support, innovation, culture, health, regeneration, affordable homes and energy carbon sustainability projects.
www.focus-consultants.co.uk
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