SCOTTISH Borders Council will this week be asked to shell out £3.5million as its share of the £6million it will cost to build a new visitor centre to house the Great Tapestry of Scotland near the new rail terminus at Tweedbank Industrial Estate.

After spending around £60,000 for private consultants to come up with a business case and to identify a site, SBC officials are recommending that the project is given the green light.

Although the £2.5million balance of the construction costs, including site preparation, new footways and project management, will be met by the Scottish Government as part of a commitment to maximise the impact of the Borders Railway, the council’s capital spend, phased over the next two financial years, will incur loan charges of £275,000 a year for 30 years – a staggering £8.25million.

The council will own the building and lease it to a new ad hoc trust which will, according to the business case, be expected to operate the attraction without any further calls on the public purse.

Punters, the bulk of whom are expected to travel by train or car, will have to fork out £10 a head to view the 143-metre long artwork, embroidered by over 1,000 volunteers, which charts the history of Scotland through 160 panels designed by the artist Andrew Crummy.

This is despite the fact that the current Great Scottish Tapestry Charitable Trust, which includes Borders historian Alistair Moffat who came up with the tapestry’s narrative, has the stated objective of making the work available for viewing “at no cost to the public”.

The decision to commission the consultants’ studies was taken by the council in May when Mr Moffat and fellow trust member Alexander McCall Smith, indicated the tapestry could be lost to the Borders if it was not sited at Tweedbank.

The business case, by Midlothian consultant Jura, assumes annual visitor numbers of 55,000 in year one and 50,000 in year two before levelling out to a “steady state” of 47,000 visitors a year.

Jura believes that these numbers could be boosted by campaigns to market the new railway both by Visit Scotland and the new rail franchise operator Abellio.

Thursday’s report, jointly authored by SBC’s corporate services director Rob Dickson, states: “In order for the attraction to be financially viable there is a strong case for charging admission. The headline price for adult admission is £10. “However, the pricing structure assumes a range of discounts for a number of visitor groups including families, so the average income per ticket sold is forecast to be £6.

“Based on the visitor projections and the pricing structure, the attraction is forecast to achieve a surplus of about £80,000 in its first year of operation. With the predicted leveling off in visitor numbers, this translates to a £22,000 surplus in year three.

“These figures demonstrate the viability of the attraction as long as visitor numbers can be achieved and operating costs are carefully controlled.

“Additional sensitivity analysis demonstrates that a reduced level of income could be tolerated as long as management measures are taken to reduce operating costs.” The design feasibility study, carried out by Glasgow architects Page Park, plumps for a 1,175 sq.m. building on two levels comprising the tapestry and supplementary exhibition space on the first floor and workshop areas, reception, café, gallery and “entertainment areas” on the ground floor.

The report says a number of council-owned sites were considered before the architects opted for the south-western corner of the new roundabout access to Tweedbank Station opposite Eildon Mill where election counts take place.

Mr Dickson’s report states: “The new roundabout will make this site a prominent one in relation to walking from the station.

“Whilst this site is currently planted with trees covered by a Tree Preservation Order, it has the advantage of facing the approach from the Melrose roundabout, is visible from the station and can have associated car parking.” The highest ranking “risk” outlined in the report is that a bid to host the tapestry may come “from another geographic location”.

But Mr Dickson also cautions that visitor numbers and admission income could be lower than forecast, while operating costs could be greater than those predicted.

However, the report recommends that the project should be given the go-ahead, that a legal agreement should be sought with the tapestry’s current trustees, that £3.5million should be allocated between 2015 and 2017, and that future decisions regarding the lease of the building should be vested in SBC’s 16-strong executive committee.