Trentham Padel: Turnkey Launch Roadmap, Governance and Contingency
Project: Six-court indoor padel venue, Stoke-on-Trent / Trentham area Prepared for: Ade Whetton Operating model: Lean/unmanned-first target state, hybrid at opening Size benchmark: Your Padel, Uttoxeter (approximately 3,000–3,200 m² internal floorspace planning case) Research date: 7 August 2026 Status: Programme-level roadmap. Every duration and fee below is either taken from the pack's validated statutory evidence (documents 06 and 07 and the validation notes) or expressly marked "confirm with authority". Nothing in this document is a quotation.
Decision in one sentence: Run the project as a gated, conditional programme — secure exclusivity and a conditional agreement for lease first, spend nothing irreversible until planning, utilities-capacity and life-safety gates close, open hybrid with the bar and vending staged behind their own approvals, and treat "unmanned" as the target state to be earned with 90 days of operating evidence, not the day-one design.
1. How to read this roadmap
The critical path is not a construction schedule; it is a sequence of risk-retirement gates lifted directly from document 06's gated acquisition structure (Gates 0–9) and document 07's opening sequence and no-go rule. Two rules govern everything:
- No irreversible spend before its gate closes. Do not sign an unconditional lease, order court manufacture or begin fit-out merely because a unit has the right height (document 06). Court manufacture is not committed until consent risk is controlled (Gate 4).
- The venue opens on evidence, not on a date. Document 07's no-go rule: the venue opens only when the life-safety, water, food, waste, utility, licensing and building-control gates are evidenced as closed.
The single largest early risk is planning location — indoor padel is Class E(d), a main town-centre use, and a 35,000–45,000 sq ft venue (3,252–4,181 m²) exceeds the 2,500 m² national default impact-assessment threshold. The single largest opening risk is life safety during low-staff or unstaffed periods (document 06 central conclusion). The roadmap is built so that both are resolved before money becomes unrecoverable.
Known long-lead and long-duration items across the whole programme:
| Item | Evidence from the pack |
|---|---|
| Planning consent | Statutory determination target 13 weeks for major development; assume 20–32 weeks from first consultant instruction to usable consent, including pre-application, surveys, validation, consultation and any extension (statutory notes) |
| DNO electrical service/substation upgrade | Screened at £10,000–£300,000, site-specific; a lease condition precedent or landlord-funded work, never an ordinary tenant contingency (document 07). Delivery timescale: confirm with National Grid Electricity Distribution |
| Water/sewer reinforcement | Screened at £5,000–£100,000 (water) and £5,000–£75,000 (sewer) beyond the application fees (document 07). Timescale: confirm with Severn Trent |
| Premises licence | Apply at least 8–12 weeks before planned alcohol service; 28-day consultation, hearing possible (statutory notes) |
| Food business registration | Free, at least 28 days before food trading (documents 07 and 08) |
| Court manufacture and delivery | Manufacture lead time: confirm with supplier. Installation commonly 3–4 days per court once foundations, access and utilities are complete (master cost notes) |
| Building-control approval | Full Plans route required; fee individually determined by Stoke — obtain a written quote after concept design (documents 06 and 07). Approval timescale: confirm with authority |
| Simpler Recycling | All workplaces must separate food, dry recycling and residual waste from 31 March 2027 — design waste to the 2027 standard from opening (document 07) |
2. Critical path: phased roadmap
Phase 1 — Site selection and heads of terms
| Element | Position |
|---|---|
| Entry criteria | Screening criteria fixed per document 02: 8 m-plus clear-height six-court indoor building, column-free court zones, protected parking, credible planning route, correct local authority confirmed from full postcode and red-line boundary |
| Exit criteria | Heads of terms signed on a candidate unit covering rent, term, break, deposit, rent-free period, service charge, permitted use, alienation and reinstatement principles (document 06 Gate 0); exclusivity long enough to complete planning and technical due diligence (document 02); conditional agreement-for-lease structure agreed in principle with planning, survey and utilities conditions precedent and a long-stop date |
| Dependencies | None upstream; everything downstream depends on this phase |
| Long-lead items | Site availability itself — the live scan found no verified, immediately available Trentham building that passes every gate (document 02); begin utilities pre-enquiries in this phase because DNO and Severn Trent responses gate the lease |
| Owner | Project sponsor (Ade Whetton) with property agent and solicitor |
| Governing documents | 02 (catchment, competition and site screening), 06 §1 and §3 (gates, heads of terms, conditions precedent), 07 §10 (lease conditions precedent) |
Spend in this phase is desktop due diligence only (document 06 Gate 0). Known fees: Severn Trent combined water/wastewater pre-planning enquiry £280.60 ex VAT (document 07). Document 02's go/no-go stands: a Trentham venue is not yet a go on market evidence alone — this phase must also produce demand validation (live competitor booking availability, actual prices, lead capture, pre-sale evidence) before Gate 4 spend.
Phase 2 — Planning and change of use
| Element | Position |
|---|---|
| Entry criteria | Heads of terms signed; property due-diligence pack under way (title, lawful use, planning history, measured survey, asbestos management information — document 06 Gates 1–2); Stoke major-development pre-application purchased (£2,000 incl VAT, effectively mandatory for risk control) |
| Exit criteria | Planning consent granted with conditions checked against the business model (hours, courts, capacity, music, plant noise, parking, ancillary café/bar status, lighting, waste, operations management plan — document 06 §2.5); lease permitted-use clause at least as wide as the permission |
| Dependencies | Phase 1 heads of terms and site access for surveys; the sequential and impact-test evidence pack (planning statement, sequential assessment, impact assessment, transport, noise, operations management plan and the rest of the document 06 §2.4 package) |
| Long-lead items | The consent itself: 13-week statutory target for major development but assume 20–32 weeks from first consultant instruction to usable consent; add time for discharge of conditions (£309 per request) and committee/judicial-review risk before irreversible spend (statutory notes) |
| Owner | Planning consultant, instructed by project sponsor |
| Governing documents | 06 §2 (use class, sequential/impact tests, fees, application package, conditions), statutory validated findings |
Known fees: change-of-use statutory fee £610 (from 1 April 2026); professional planning and survey allowance £20,000–£60,000 (feasibility estimate, not a tariff); variation of a major-development condition £2,076 — avoid by negotiating workable conditions before decision. If the building is already lawful Class E without restrictive conditions, movement to E(d) may not be development — verify the history and consider a Lawful Development Certificate before assuming a full application is needed.
Phase 3 — Building Regulations and fire strategy
| Element | Position |
|---|---|
| Entry criteria | Concept freeze per document 06 Gate 3: court layout, fire strategy outline, access strategy, occupancy, hospitality scope, utilities loads, refuse and service plan fixed; planning consent granted or risk controlled |
| Exit criteria | Full Plans/building-control approval secured (not a building notice — this is a complex public sports conversion); fire strategy signed off by the fire engineer covering unstaffed-mode controls, defensible maximum occupancy, escape independent of cloud/remote systems; Building Regulations principal designer and CDM appointments explicit |
| Dependencies | Phase 2 consent (design must match the approved scheme); structural/slab investigation and refurbishment/demolition asbestos survey (UKAS-accredited) before intrusive design decisions |
| Long-lead items | Building-control quote and approval — Stoke individually determines large commercial charges; hold a £3,000–£12,000 allowance until scope is fixed; approval timescale: confirm with authority. Fire-system design and installation: life-safety capital envelope £34,000–£237,000 (base £79,000) per the master cost notes (this supersedes the earlier £25,000–£72,000 provisional allowance — do not carry both) |
| Owner | Architect/lead designer with fire engineer, structural engineer and Building Regulations principal designer |
| Governing documents | 06 §4, statutory validated findings (Building Regulations, fire safety, CDM, accessibility), master cost validated findings (fire planning basis) |
Fire boundary rules that cannot be traded away: escape cannot depend on cloud software, remote staff or customer phones; use the Home Office small/medium assembly guide at 300 or fewer occupants and the large-place guide above 300; the fire strategy — not the technology vendor — approves the final unstaffed mode (documents 04 and 09, statutory notes).
Phase 4 — Utilities, water and drainage applications
| Element | Position |
|---|---|
| Entry criteria | Pre-enquiries already returned from Phase 1 (Severn Trent combined enquiry £280.60 ex VAT; DNO budget response); MEP loads fixed at concept freeze |
| Exit criteria | Formal capacity confirmations and priced connection offers held; abnormal works allocated in the agreement for lease (landlord upgrade, rent-free compensation or exit — document 07 §10); surface-water charge basis evidenced from drainage drawings/CCTV (the 7,500–9,999 m² band is £6,346.30/year 2026–27 — removable if no surface water reaches the public sewer) |
| Dependencies | Phase 1 lease conditionality (these are conditions precedent, not post-completion problems); Phase 3 design loads |
| Long-lead items | DNO service/substation upgrade (screened £10,000–£300,000) and any Severn Trent reinforcement (screened £5,000–£100,000 water, £5,000–£75,000 sewer). Delivery timescales: confirm with National Grid Electricity Distribution and Severn Trent respectively |
| Owner | MEP engineer and civil/drainage engineer, commercially controlled by project sponsor's solicitor via the lease conditions |
| Governing documents | 07 §2, §5, §7 and §10 (cost envelope, water/drainage, energy, lease gates) |
Known application fees (2026–27, application only — construction is separately quoted): 50 mm+ water-service application £342.95 ex VAT; public-sewer connection approval/inspection £515.28 in highway / £279.83 outside; base infrastructure charges £385.36 water / £499.62 sewerage. Design decisions locked here: all-electric light-production café, no open cooling tower, closed cooling systems, booking-linked court lighting, zoned HVAC — heat the hall only where justified, because the conditioned/staffed utility case runs approximately £300,000/year above the lean case (£168,391 lean vs £468,785 conditioned; hybrid base £303,038).
Phase 5 — Fit-out and courts
| Element | Position |
|---|---|
| Entry criteria | Document 06 Gates 5–6 closed: detailed design, tender returns, updated capex approved; Licence to Alter, professional appointments, building contract (JCT with PI, warranties, liquidated damages), insurances in place; slab survey, scanning and anchor/flatness design complete (£3,000–£12,000 allowance) |
| Exit criteria | Construction complete against certification (payments released only against certificates — Gate 7); courts installed to the SAPCA/LTA code as contractual minimum (20 m × 10 m courts, 6 m clear above the playing area, 300 lux average / 0.5 uniformity recreational target, 12 mm tempered glass for indoor panoramic courts per supplier confirmation); completion certificate path clear |
| Dependencies | Phases 2–4 all closed; court manufacture committed only after planning risk controlled (Gate 4 rule); concrete subfloor free of embedded services at anchor points confirmed before ordering |
| Long-lead items | Court manufacture and delivery — lead time: confirm with supplier via three like-for-like written quotations (glass, turf, lighting, delivery, installation, anchoring, commissioning, warranty, spares, exclusions, VAT). Installation itself is short: commonly 3–4 days per court once foundations, access and utilities are complete. Slab remediation is the fatal-risk sensitivity: £10,000–£90,000 screened, excluding a wholesale new slab |
| Owner | Principal contractor under the building contract; contract administration by the lead designer; client duties under CDM 2015 (F10 notification where thresholds met) |
| Governing documents | 06 §1 and §4, master cost validated findings (court model basis: six indoor court packages £150,000–£210,000, base £180,000 at £30,000/court, with site-specific additions kept separate to avoid double counting), statutory validated findings (CDM, asbestos, SAPCA) |
Phase 6 — Technology install and commissioning
| Element | Position |
|---|---|
| Entry criteria | Fire strategy fixed (technology must conform to it, not vice versa); network, power and containment ready from fit-out; supplier contracts embed the document 04/05 non-negotiables (offline local control, single-action mechanical egress, segmented networks, read-only Playtomic Club API understood, no custom door release coded against it) |
| Exit criteria | Every door, relay, interface and incident workflow has a commissioning test and retained record (document 04 "evidence before automation"); the document 09 opening test passed: lost booking credential, failed main door, door that will not secure, help-point failure, power/WAN loss, court-light fault, unsafe court, casualty call, fire alarm, spill and alcohol-service close all exercised; remote duty, alarm-centre, local-responder and engineer SLAs signed with P1–P4 response targets; the document 11 unmanned-pilot video suite (V01–V10) filmed against these same commissioning tests, approved, and signed off by every rostered remote duty manager and local responder — the pilot cannot open without this |
| Dependencies | Phase 3 fire strategy and Phase 5 physical completion; Playtomic Manager Champion contract and supported access-hardware integration confirmed in writing (UK pricing is not published — do not approve from a slide deck) |
| Long-lead items | Access-hardware provider certification against the building entrance and offline caching (must be written into the hardware contract and tested); first-year software/integration envelope £11,328–£38,828, recurring £7,928–£27,328, before transaction fees (document 05) |
| Owner | Technology lead/integrator, with the fire engineer holding veto over anything touching escape |
| Governing documents | 04 (remote-operations architecture, jam and failure playbook), 05 (booking, payments and software stack, contract non-negotiables), 11 §6.1 (the ten pilot videos, filmed during this phase's commissioning tests) |
Phase 7 — Licensing and registrations
| Element | Position |
|---|---|
| Entry criteria | Opening hours, floor plan, capacity and hospitality scope frozen (they feed the licence application and must match the planning conditions); DPS candidate identified with personal licence (£37) |
| Exit criteria | Premises licence granted with conditions workable against the business model and coordinated with planning hours; DPS in place; food business registration submitted to Stoke at least 28 days before food trading (free, cannot be refused); TV/music licences quoted once final public floor area, music use and events profile are known |
| Dependencies | Phases 2 and 5 (the licensed plan must reflect the built layout); document 08 bar design (staffed service only — no alcohol vending or unstaffed self-service, ever) |
| Long-lead items | Premises licence: apply at least 8–12 weeks before planned alcohol service; 28-day consultation; hearing if relevant representations remain. Stoke fees are rateable-value banded: new application £100–£635 (Bands A–E), annual £70–£350 — a padel venue should be demonstrably sport-led to avoid alcohol-led multipliers |
| Owner | Project sponsor with licensing solicitor; GM/Responsible Operator as incoming DPS support |
| Governing documents | 06 (licensing blueprint), statutory validated findings (premises licensing, music/TV/events), 08 (bar controls, Challenge 25, refusal/incident logs), 07 §4 (food registration and Environmental Health) |
Note the free capacity in the policy: an indoor sporting event with an audience up to 1,000 between 08:00 and 23:00 is deregulated for entertainment purposes under Stoke's adopted policy — early tournaments and exhibition events do not need to wait for the premises licence, provided no alcohol sale or late-night refreshment is involved.
Phase 8 — Vending pilot
| Element | Position |
|---|---|
| Entry criteria | Power/data/UPS/CCTV provisions installed during fit-out; food registration covers any consumables handling; local responder and supplier SLA contracted |
| Exit criteria | 90 days of measured Trentham data on demand, failure rates and service response; decision to scale, adjust or stop taken on that evidence — not on supplier ROI claims, which are not bankable |
| Dependencies | Phases 5–6 (physical and payment infrastructure); deliberately independent of Phase 7 alcohol licensing — alcohol is excluded from vending entirely |
| Long-lead items | None material; the design intent is a small reversible commitment — £12,846–£28,865 all-in pilot budget, base £19,195, consumables machine leased not purchased, no five-year non-cancellable contract |
| Owner | Operations/Duty Manager, with remote duty manager handling telemetry and refunds |
| Governing documents | 01 (vending and equipment rental blueprint: 15–18-bay audited racket locker plus one separate cashless consumables machine; returnable assets separated from sale stock) |
Phase 9 — Soft launch
| Element | Position |
|---|---|
| Entry criteria | Document 07's no-go rule satisfied: life-safety, water, food, waste, utility, licensing and building-control gates evidenced as closed; completion certificate, fire sign-off, electrical and emergency-lighting tests, court certification, accessibility inspection and insurer acceptance in hand (document 06 Gate 9); all critical defects closed, meter reads taken, collections confirmed, temperature/leak alerts active, opening certificate signed |
| Exit criteria | First 30 days complete with daily management review of energy, water, waste, temperatures, incidents, complaints and faults (document 07 §11); hybrid rota operating: 5 employees / 3.25 FTE, approximately 59 of 108 public clock-hours staffed, juniors, coaching, alcohol and events confined to staffed blocks |
| Dependencies | Everything above. Soft launch is controlled — document 06 Gate 9 calls it a "controlled soft opening", not a marketing event |
| Long-lead items | Staff competence, allergen matrix, first-aid cover, COSHH, incident drills, contractor register and digital inspection forms — 2–4 weeks before opening per document 07's sequence, delivered against document 11's staffed-operation SOP catalogue and video suite (V11–V21: café/allergens, bar/Challenge 25, fire evacuation, first aid/AED, CCTV, payment reconciliation, contractor control, waste/FOG/pest, complaints, safeguarding) — no one is rostered to a duty until document 11's SOP register shows the linked video watched and competency check passed; waste tenders, water retailer, energy procurement, water-hygiene risk assessment 12–16 weeks before opening; commissioning of plumbing/backflow, electrical, HVAC, refrigeration 4–8 weeks before |
| Owner | GM/Responsible Operator, with the Compliance and Facilities Lead owning the master obligation register (67 obligations in the environmental/utilities workbook) |
| Governing documents | 07 §11 (opening sequence and no-go rule), 09 (hybrid rota, opening gate tests), 11 (SOP library, registers and staffed-operation video suite — the actual training and sign-off mechanism for this phase), 03 (customer journey), 06 Gate 9 |
Phase 10 — Full launch and 90-day reset
| Element | Position |
|---|---|
| Entry criteria | 30-day soft-launch review clean; no open P1/P2 incidents without named owner and closure authority |
| Exit criteria | At 90 days: utilities and waste reforecast from actual data; staffing schedule rebuilt from hourly court occupancy, first-time visits, coaching/junior sessions, incidents, access calls, faults, hospitality contribution and sales per staffed hour (documents 07 and 09). Only then may staffed blocks contract towards the lean target state — and activities never migrate into remote mode merely because demand is low |
| Dependencies | Phase 9 evidence base; vending pilot read-out (Phase 8) feeding the hospitality staging decision in document 08 |
| Long-lead items | None; this phase is measurement and adjustment |
| Owner | GM/Responsible Operator reporting to project sponsor |
| Governing documents | 09 §12 (90-day reset), 07 §11 (90-day reforecast), 08 (staged hospitality expansion tests), 02 (competitive response monitoring — the pipeline includes an announced Ace Padel Fenton scheme) |
3. Governance
3.1 Decision rights
| Decision | Held by | Cannot be delegated to |
|---|---|---|
| Gate passage (Gates 0–9) and any irreversible spend | Project sponsor (Ade Whetton), on written evidence per document 06's gate table | Consultants, suppliers or the enthusiasm of a target date |
| Planning proposition, sequential-test scope and conditions acceptance | Project sponsor on planning consultant's advice | — |
| Fire strategy, unstaffed-mode approval, maximum occupancy | Fire engineer and Responsible Person, with building control and insurer acceptance | Technology vendors, remote-monitoring providers |
| Kitchen or HVAC scope that moves the project towards the conditioned/staffed utility case | Board-level approval required (document 07 §12 rule) | Operations team |
| Compliance obligations register (67 items), water hygiene, food, waste | Named Compliance and Facilities Lead (document 07 control principle) — contractors perform, the operator retains the duty | Contractors |
| Daily operations, incidents, rota, access exceptions | GM/Responsible Operator and Operations/Duty Manager (document 09 role design) | Remote duty provider acting alone |
| Alcohol service authorisation | DPS/personal licence holder within licence conditions | Anyone unlicensed; never automated |
| Court/zone/venue closure on safety grounds | Any duty manager (physical or remote) may close; only a named authority may reopen — an unsafe court is never reopened remotely (document 04) | — |
3.2 Weekly operating cadence
- Pre-opening (Phases 1–8): one weekly programme review against the gate table — evidence received, evidence outstanding, spend requested vs gate status, long-stop dates, and a standing "what did we nearly commit to before its gate closed?" item. Utilities, planning and licensing applications each carry a named owner and next-action date every week.
- Post-opening (Phases 9–10): the document 07 discipline — daily management review for the first 30 days, then weekly review of energy, water, waste, temperature/leak alerts, incidents, complaints, faults, staffed-hour sales and the shared digital operational log; no P1/P2 issue handed over without a named owner, action and closure authority (document 09 §11).
- Quarterly: 90-day resets of utilities forecast and rota (documents 07 and 09), vending pilot decision (document 01), hospitality staging review against document 08's commercial tests, and a competitor-supply rescan (document 02).
3.3 Spend approval structure
The pack deliberately prices risk in ranges, so approval thresholds are structured by reversibility and gate status, not by inventing fixed amounts here. The mechanism:
- Tier 1 — desktop and enquiry spend (searches, pre-enquiries, pre-application, surveys): approvable by the project sponsor at any time; this is Gate 0–2 money and is the cost of walking away cleanly.
- Tier 2 — professional design and application spend (planning package, detailed design, tenders): approvable only when the preceding gate has closed and against the pack's stated allowances (e.g. £20,000–£60,000 planning allowance; £3,000–£12,000 building-control allowance), with any forecast breach of an allowance returning to the sponsor before commitment.
- Tier 3 — irreversible commitments (unconditional lease, court manufacture, building contract, five-year service contracts): board-level written approval, only after the conditions precedent in documents 06 §3 and 07 §10 are discharged, and never against an open item on the abnormal-infrastructure risk register (DNO, water, sewer, slab, asbestos, acoustic works).
- Standing exclusions: the £712,880 conditional setup exposure in document 07 is a screening envelope, not a budget — no line from it may be "approved" as contingency; each trigger is eliminated or allocated in the lease before Tier 3 opens. Supplier ROI claims are never accepted as approval evidence (documents 01 and 03).
- Set actual monetary limits per tier at entity formation, when the funding structure is known; record them in the board minutes alongside the gate table.
3.4 Risk register — top 10
| # | Risk (source) | Impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Planning refusal or unviable conditions — E(d) is a main town-centre use; the venue exceeds the 2,500 m² impact threshold; sequential test applies (06, statutory notes) | Fatal to an out-of-centre site | £2,000 major pre-application before exchange; conditional agreement for lease with long-stop; technical/operational sequential evidence (height, span, parking); check every condition against the business model before the build contract |
| 2 | Life safety in low-staff periods fails acceptance — fire strategy, insurer or building control rejects the unstaffed mode (06, 04, 09) | Blocks the operating model | Fire strategy leads design; escape mechanical and cloud-independent; hybrid opening rota with activities confined to staffed blocks; staffed fallback pre-planned (§4.2) |
| 3 | Inadequate electricity connection — DNO upgrade screened £10,000–£300,000 (07) | Uncosted capex or dead site | DNO budget response before lease is unconditional; landlord upgrade, rent-free compensation or exit as the lease remedy |
| 4 | Water/sewer capacity and surface-water charges — reinforcement screened £5,000–£100,000 / £5,000–£75,000; surface-water band £6,346.30/year (07) | Hidden recurring and connection cost | £280.60 combined pre-planning enquiry; drainage drawings and dye/CCTV evidence; charge challenged or allocated before completion |
| 5 | Business-rates assumption wrong — illustrative RVs £150,000–£350,000 span £64,500–£150,500/year at Stoke's 43p RHL multiplier (07) | Break-even moves materially | Obtain the exact 2026-list RV, Stoke's written multiplier view and the fit-out/vacancy treatment before lease; regulated rating review if uncertain; no rates holiday assumed |
| 6 | Slab or structural defect — remediation screened £10,000–£90,000 and flagged as the fatal site-risk sensitivity (master cost notes) | Court installation blocked or repriced | Slab survey, scanning and anchor/flatness design (£3,000–£12,000) before commitment; survey-based withdrawal right in the agreement for lease; subfloor service-free at anchor points confirmed before ordering courts |
| 7 | Competitive supply grows — Powerleague Trentham Lakes (4 courts), Ace Padel Cobridge (4 indoor) operating; Ace Fenton announced; Uttoxeter, Stafford, Draycott regional (02) | Demand and yield below case | Do not open as "padel near Trentham"; win on indoor quality, availability, programming and experience; pre-sale demand validation before Tier 3 spend; quarterly supply rescan |
| 8 | Unmanned technology under-delivers or locks in — read-only Playtomic API, unproven access-hardware claims, single-supplier cabinets, marketing-grade ROI claims (01, 04, 05) | Service failures, refunds, stranded contracts | Federated stack; commissioning evidence per door/relay/workflow; document 09 opening failure tests; pilot-then-commit procurement; no five-year non-cancellable contracts at launch |
| 9 | Utility scope creep to the conditioned/staffed case — approximately £300,000/year above lean (07) | Operating model quietly repriced | Board approval gate on any kitchen/HVAC scope expansion; zoned HVAC and booking-linked lighting designed in; 90-day reforecast from actual meters |
| 10 | People and status failures — coach employment status (CEST), safeguarding, first aid, lone working, DPS coverage (09, statutory notes) | Legal exposure and forced rota change | CEST retained for material coaching engagements; juniors/vulnerable sessions only in staffed programme mode with welfare structure; first-aid-needs assessment covering the public; distinct staffed and remote operating modes with closure triggers |
Secondary risks stay on the working register: asbestos discovery in intrusive works (refurbishment/demolition survey before structural work), lease reinstatement obligations (priced cap, no open-ended court-removal liability), noise abatement action (commissioning tests at receptors, complaint log), local-government reorganisation (a transition risk, not a delay reason — apply to the legally responsible authority and retain records for handover), and Playtomic subscription failure making the club inactive after five days (controlled payment method, billing alerts, named backup administrator).
4. Contingency controls
4.1 Pause triggers
The programme pauses — no new Tier 2/3 spend, existing commitments held at their break points — when any of the following occurs:
- Planning: refusal, a long-stop breach, or consent conditioned in a way that breaks the model (hours, capacity, ancillary-bar restriction below the hybrid case) and cannot be varied at acceptable cost (£2,076 major-condition variation is the known fee; the delay is the real cost).
- Site evidence: any survey finds a defect above the agreed threshold — slab, structure, asbestos, roof, drainage — and the landlord will not remediate, indemnify or reprice. Document 06's rule: reject any unit with an unresolvable height, title, planning, parking or services defect.
- Utilities: the DNO or Severn Trent formal response prices abnormal works beyond what the lease allocates to the landlord, or capacity simply is not available on an acceptable timescale.
- Life safety: the fire engineer, building control or the insurer declines the proposed low-staff operating envelope and no compliant redesign preserves the case.
- Rates and recurring costs: the actual 2026 RV or utility evidence pushes the operating case materially past the hybrid planning envelope (£303,038/year utilities/rates case) without offsetting revenue evidence.
- Demand: pre-sale and competitor-availability evidence fails the document 02 test — the venue cannot credibly outperform Powerleague and Ace on peak availability, indoor environment, programme depth and experience.
A pause is a return to the last closed gate, not automatically an exit. The exit decision belongs to the project sponsor against the walk-away costs deliberately kept small in Tiers 1–2.
4.2 Fallback options
Staffed fallback if unmanned technology fails acceptance or performance. The pack prices this. If access/remote systems fail the document 09 opening tests, or fail in service, the venue moves to staffed-open/staffed-close operation using the hybrid roles: staffed clock-hours expand from ~59 towards the 108-hour traditional coverage only as far as needed, with document 09's traditional case (£522,392 loaded payroll; £613,292 all-people envelope) as the known worst-case ceiling — the fallback is more rota, not a redesign. Technology is then re-commissioned function by function against retained test evidence before any staffed block is stood down again. During any degraded mode, the standing rules from documents 04 and 07 apply: no unstaffed admissions while a door cannot secure, suspend and refund where secure access cannot be restored, and audible-alarm response always has a physical keyholder (Stoke charges £104–£207.50 when the council has to silence a malfunctioning alarm — a signal, not a plan).
Hybrid opening if licensing is delayed. Alcohol is the only revenue stream gated on the premises licence. If the licence is delayed by consultation or hearing, open anyway as the sport-led venue: courts, coaching, vending and the café trade on food registration (28-day rule) alone; the bar area stays physically closed and stock secured exactly as documents 08 and 09 already require outside staffed licensed periods; events run within the deregulated allowance (indoor sport, audience up to 1,000, 08:00–23:00, no licensable activity); TENs (£21) cover genuinely occasional licensed events within statutory limits while the application completes. This costs the modest bar contribution for the delay period — document 08 shows hybrid hospitality is worth £11,856/year in contribution — and protects the launch date, which is worth more.
Vending-first bridge. If hospitality fit-out or staffing slips, the document 01 pilot (locker plus consumables machine, base £19,195) already provides equipment fulfilment and refreshment out of hours; the café/bar can follow in document 08's staged sequence without holding the courts hostage.
Scope retreat before cash retreat. If the operating case tightens, the pre-agreed retreat order is: defer conditioned-hall HVAC (largest lever, ~£300,000/year between lean and conditioned cases), defer hospitality expansion (document 08 stage tests), hold the vending pilot at current scale, shrink staffed blocks per 90-day evidence (document 09 rules, never below the safety boundary) — before touching courts, life safety or compliance, which are never retreat items.
Governing sources: deliverables 01–09 and the validated findings notes in this pack. Durations and fees cited are those published or evidenced at 7 August 2026; everything else is marked for confirmation with the relevant authority, supplier or the final lease.