Commercial Operations at Rufford Abbey Country Park

Nottinghamshire County Council seeks expressions of interest from suitably experienced organisations to secure a commercial management and development partner for Rufford Abbey Country Park through Competitive Dialogue tender procedure.
Each year the Park welcomes around 350,000 visitors and generates income close to £2M. The Council’s vision for the Park is: “A long-term, sustainable future for Rufford Abbey Country Park. To conserve (protect and enhance) the heritage of the historic abbey buildings and the surrounding parkland and to develop a modern and attractive visitor offer.”
To help deliver and maintain this vision, we wish to enter into a contractual arrangement with a partner develop a modern and attractive visitor offer, and to manage this commercial and visitor offer, the Council will continue to manage the Park’s parkland & garden areas. The partner will need to demonstrate its ability to contribute to our vision effectively and sustainably, based upon a financially sound long-term operational model that is attractive and acceptable to the Council.
The Council’s specific requirements are that:
• A visitor offer which operates daily throughout the year, and as a minimum support and accommodates current visitor numbers
• demonstration that any capital investment in new/improved facilities has a minimum life span of 10 years;
• ensuring continuing free public access to the Rufford Abbey Country Park;
• effectively supporting all-ability visitor access;
• effectively supporting the management of visitor impact on the park in general and the historic remains within and around the Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM) in particular providing appropriate interpretation/visitor information;
• demonstrating environmental good practice in respect of the operation of the facilities.
The Council’s ambition is for the Park to be operated with as small a revenue budget subsidy as is practicable and, in the short-term, to reduce the Councils expenditure by £300k per annum.
Management of the Park’s parkland & gardens will be retained by the Council. The partner will manage the commercial offer only.
The Council has identified a capital contribution of up to £1M towards the development of enhanced/remodelled visitor facilities. The Council wishes to minimise its capital contribution, and is therefore keen to maximise the contribution of partners/other external sources of funding. If the Council’s capital is used, the Council requires a demonstrable financial return and best value for this investment.
The Council considers that there may be scope for appropriate development on site in the form of underused buildings that may support and accommodate additional/reshaped visitor provision e.g. for holiday accommodation or additional play facilities. Notwithstanding heritage constraints, the Council is keen to explore the opportunities for such development, should partners wish to consider capital investment to improve the visitor offer and generate additional income for the site.


The successful bidder will be required to meet the following objectives:
• provide a service for between 5 and 15 years, as options to be set out in its bid.
• operate all commercial and associated visitor services including information, education and events;
• care for and maintain of all buildings, equipment and facilities within the scope of the commercial offer (excluding major and structural maintenance, fixed plant and electrical -unless these have been modified by the operator);
• manage and use appropriately the buildings and facilities included within the commercial offer that are in the Guardianship of Historic England in accordance with the management plan agreed between the Council and the English Heritage Trust;
• manage of visitors including car parking and vehicular access;
• by agreement manage of the lake if required for recreational development;
• deliver best value for money;
• contribute to our vision and key objectives for Rufford Abbey Country Park;
• ensure that all legislative requirements are met.