From: Richard Bomford Sent: Friday, 26 June 2015 10:22 AM To: 'Claire Lupton'; 'David Stocker'; 'eric myers'; 'Jay Ellard'; 'John Reynolds'; 'Liz Seckold'; 'Pat Jones'; 'Tim Whitaker'; 'Warren Page' Subject: FW: National Stronger Regions Fund: Cardinia Council business case Hi All Finally got the reply below re my request to Cardinia Council re their successful NSRF application. Their project was: * NSRF000394, Cardinia Shire Council, Construction of a Community Hub at Emerald, The project will upgrade and extend the existing two-storey Mechanics Hall to include a new commercial kitchen, space and facilities for University of the Third Age (U3A) and the Men's Shed, new foyer/entry, art display space and local tourism information on the ground floor. The first floor will provide space for 3MDR Community Radio and a versatile meeting space. Upshot was that Cardinia Council was concerned about commercial in confidence and we won't get a copy of their business case. But I spoke to Jacky Millership who prepared the case for the council and was very helpful. She works for Grant Thornton, a multinational firm of accountants and auditor. She's worked for 30 years doing work with industry seeking funding from government. Cardinia Council felt that the documentation requirements for NSRF applications were getting a bit beyond what they were used to, so they called in Grant Thornton to help. Turns out they handed over preparation of the entire application and its documentation to Grant Thornton, and Jacky did the job: the application itself, and 15 supporting documents. It was the first job she'd done for a council applying for government funds, but she did it well and feedback was that it set the benchmark for NSRF applications. The cost was around $30,000 for the complete application and all its documentation, but she said it could be rather less if she'd had a lighter touch in the process. For the business case itself, she did a two stage process. Stage 1 was using a web application called ID (I looked this up: see http://home.id.com.au/) to which the Council had access (she suggested our council might have access too and we should work with them). It does economic modelling. It took the costs of construction and spat out the number of jobs created in the construction phase. And took the number of ongoing jobs created (about 8) and spat out the additional indirect jobs and the financial impact. Neither of these numbers was large, but they are part of the case. Stage 2 was to try to capture the social benefit of the project. That involved an 'investment logic map', a standard tool used by the Victorian government to justify programs and projects. It (a) lists the problems (social problems) and then (b) the benefit if addressing the problems and how you would measure the benefits and then (c) outlines how you would respond, what assets you would need. Which creates a story: the areas of disadvantage you will address, how you will measure the improvement, and what you need to do: and if things line up, then what you would need to do is what you are proposing to do with your project. That story was then intimately attached to what the stakeholders were doing. The stakeholders were the radio station, the men's shed, an integrated health and counselling unit, a small business incubator (as they had a recent survey which showed a need for space), the tourism hub and the art space. For example, the men's shed and the radio station were already doing training, and the radio station training included accredited radio training. The health and counselling might not have got to the final version. That ended up as a 63 page business case: about 20 pages of story, plus 43 pages of attachments (including the modelling from ID). From: Jacky Millership [jacky.millership@au.gt.com] Sent: Wednesday, 24 June 2015 11:01 AM To: richard.bomford@gmail.com Cc: Petrina Dodds Buckley Subject: RE: Trim request :National Stronger Regions Fund Dear Richard, Your email to Cardinia Shire Council regarding the National Stronger Regions Fund (NSRF) has been forwarded to me, to provide a response. My team and I worked closely with the Council to prepare the NSRF package of documentation for the Emerald Community Centre application, including the preparation of the Business Case document. In discussion with the Council, it appears there are concerns that the Business Case document includes commercial-in-confidence information provided by the various Community Centre stakeholders, and we do not wish to create unintended consequences through sharing their information in the process of sharing the finished document. I am happy to have a conversation with you regarding how we approached the exercise, and the methodology employed. Please feel free to give me a call. With regards, Jacky Millership | Associate Director - Operational Advisory Grant Thornton Australia The Rialto | Level 30 | 525 Collins Street | Melbourne | VIC 3000 | Australia T (direct) +61 3 8663 6723 | T (mobile) +61 410 409 021 | T (office) +61 3 8320 2222 | F +61 3 8320 2200 E jacky.millership@au.gt.com | W www.grantthornton.com.au Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail From: Petrina Dodds Buckley [P.DoddsBuckley@cardinia.vic.gov.au] Sent: Tuesday, 23 June 2015 5:01 PM To: Jacky Millership Subject: FW: Trim request :National Stronger Regions Fund Hi Jacky, this was one email I received. I have not responded to it yet. So I will leave it to you. Thanks Petrina Petrina Dodds Buckley | Team Leader Social and Community Planning| Cardinia Shire Council Ph: 5945 4265 | Mobile 0404991341 | Fax: 5941 3784 Email: p.doddsbuckley@cardinia.vic.gov.au |Web: www.cardinia.vic.gov.au PO Box 7 Pakenham VIC 3810 | Customer Service: 1300 787 624 We are part of a community that cares – supported by Cardinia Shire Council From: Petrina Dodds Buckley Sent: Friday, 5 June 2015 12:40 PM To: Petrina Dodds Buckley Subject: Trim request :National Stronger Regions Fund Petrina Dodds Buckley | Team Leader Social and Community Planning| Cardinia Shire Council Ph: 5945 4265 | Mobile 0404991341 | Fax: 5941 3784 Email: p.doddsbuckley@cardinia.vic.gov.au |Web: www.cardinia.vic.gov.au PO Box 7 Pakenham VIC 3810 | Customer Service: 1300 787 624 From: Richard Bomford [mailto:richard.bomford@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, 21 May 2015 11:35 AM To: MailAtCardinia Subject: National Stronger Regions Fund Dear Council Friends of the Old Bega Hospital and the Old Bega Hospital Reserve Trust are starting to document a proposal for National Stronger Regions Fund funding for a regional community and cultural centre for the Bega region. As part of that documentation we need to produce a business case. It seems that your project * NSRF000394, Cardinia Shire Council, Construction of a Community Hub at Emerald, The project will upgrade and extend the existing two-storey Mechanics Hall to include a new commercial kitchen, space and facilities for University of the Third Age (U3A) and the Men's Shed, new foyer/entry, art display space and local tourism information on the ground floor. The first floor will provide space for 3MDR Community Radio and a versatile meeting space. is very much along the same lines as our proposal for the Old Bega Hospital - we also have heritage buildings, a Men's shed and a community radio station, and demand for a gallery and tourist information on the site. It would help us greatly (we think) to see the business case documentation that you put forward for your NSRF funding. Is there any chance that you could provide us with a copy? Yours sincerely Richard Bomford President, Friends of the Old Bega Hospital Trustee, Old Bega Hospital Reserve Trust www.obh.org.au -- ________________________________________ Council shire offices have moved. All services previously located at Henty Way, Rogers Street and The Chapel are now available from Council new civic centre at 20 Siding Avenue, Officer. Phone number, email and postal address remains the same. ________________________________________ Confidentiality This information is confidential. The information contained in this transmission is directed to the defined recipient(s). Should this transmission accidentally find its way to an incorrect recipient then it should be destroyed immediately without disclosing or using the information contained in this transmission. If you have received this transmission in error then please inform the sender immediately by return email and delete the transmission and all of its associations. 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