IF a £6m visitor centre for the Great Tapestry of Scotland near the new rail terminus at Tweedbank is to be a success, it will have to buck the trend of similar attractions which have struggled to balance their books.

Earlier this month, Scottish Borders Council voted through a £3.5m capital investment in the purpose-built facility with the sum, borrowed over the next two financial years, to be repaid out of revenue coffers at an annual cost of £208,000 over the next 30 years.

Notwithstanding the insistence of the tapestry’s current trustees that the artwork would be lost to the Borders if the Tweedbank site was not selected, the majority of councillors were swayed by a business case, prepared for £40,000 by Midlothian-based consultants Jura.

That study conservatively predicts the centre, which will be leased free of charge to a new trust and employ 17 full-time equivalent staff, should, after its third year, attract 47,000 visitors a year and make an annual surplus of £22,000 based on a £10 adult admission fee.

In a “summary of attractions which bear similarities to the proposed vision for the Great Tapestry of Scotland”, Jura cites the Quaker Tapestry Exhibition Museum in Kendal, Cumbria, and the Knutsford Millennium Tapestry in Cheshire although no mention is made of the balance sheets of these facilities.

The Quaker Tapestry traces the history of the movement from 1652 and comprises 77 embroidered panels.

Despite its Lake District location, its latest accounts reveal total income of £221,000 against expenditure of £255,000. Income included grants of over £80,000 from 10 organisations including three local authorities. Income from admissions fell from £12,000 in 2012 to £10,500 in 2013, while the catering side of its operation alone lost £6,000 last year.

Meanwhile the Knutsford Heritage Centre, which hosts the Millennium Tapestry, has also been recording financial losses in recent years with expenditure of £37.360 exceeding income of £35,221 in 2013/14. Income includes grants of £9,750 and donations of £8,921. This is actually an improvement on 2012/13 when there was spending of £41,467 and income of £27,628.

Another attraction not mentioned in the Jura report is the Jersey Occupation Tapestry which required an £800,000 bailout from the States of Jersey government in 2009 and had to be closed in the winter months to save money.  At this month’s SBC meeting, Conservative councillor Keith Cockburn asked what would happen to the Tweedbank centre, which will be owned by the council, if it was not a success.

He was told by corporate services director Rob Dickson the building could “easily be adapted” into office space.

Councillor Gavin Logan, who, like his party colleague Mr Cockburn, voted against the tapestry project, told us: “Given the financial problems of these other tapestry galleries, we have to ask why a railway siding next to an industrial estate should be any different.

“There is still time for the council to scrap this shameful project and admit it has made a huge mistake.”