IF a new permanent home for the Great Tapestry of Scotland at Tweedbank is to wash its face financially, it will have to attract more paying customers than Abbotsford House managed last year.

In 2014, the first full year since a £12m refurbishment, 40,065 visitors paid to tour the historic home of Sir Walter Scott and its many treasures. Another 13,440 were admitted free of charge.

The £40,000 business plan for the tapestry centre predicts the new facility next to the rail terminus will see visitor numbers level off at 47,000 a year in its third year of operation, producing an annual surplus of £22,000, based on a £10 adult admission fee.

The possibility that, notwithstanding the coming of the railway, the Tweedbank centre may be less viable than predicted was due to have been raised at last Thursday’s meeting of Scottish Borders Council when capital plans to invest £6m on its construction were presented for approval.

As revealed in these columns , £200,000 has been earmarked in SBC’s capital programme for the project in 2015/16 with the balance of £5.8m, including a £2.5m contribution from the Scottish Government, to be found the following year. But an attempt by Councillor Michelle Ballantyne, leader of the opposition Conservative group, to challenge this allocation, which will result in the council paying annual loan charges of £208,000 for 30 years, was unsuccessful.

When she rose to her feet to demand that the Tweedbank project should be removed from the capital budget, she was interrupted by Councillor Jim Brown, the deputy convener who was chairing the meeting. After a brief top table discussion, Councillor Ballantyne was advised by Jenny Wilkinson, clerk to the council, that the decision to support the tapestry project – and to make financial provision for it in the capital plan – had been made by the council on December 18.

As six months had not elapsed since that decision, it would require standing orders to be suspended for the issue to be revisited. And when Councillor Ballantyne moved for that suspension, her motion was defeated by 19 votes to 11. Apart from the nine Conservative councillors, two Hawick Independents – Stuart Marshall and Watson McAteer – supported the motion.

The capital programme for major projects – worth £58m in 2015/16, £134m over the next three years and £352m over the next10 years – was thus approved with no amendments.

A reference to the tapestry investment came later from Councillor Stuart Bell, executive member for economic development, who rubbished a claim that the £2.5m contribution from the Scottish Government represented the total amount that would be made available to support economic regeneration in the Borders in relation to the railway.

That claim was made in these columns by Brian McCrow, the Innerleithen community councillor, who has raised a petition calling for the December decision on the tapestry to be reversed.

“That’s a completely ridiculous suggestion,” said Councillor Bell.

Earlier in the meeting, Councillor John Mitchell, SBC’s depute leader and executive member for finance, commended the increased spending in the capital programme.

Notwithstanding the tapestry investment which would create 17 jobs and be “a major tourist attraction for years to come”, he highlighted other major schemes which would bring “a huge boost to local businesses of every hue”.

These projects include the Galashiels Transport Interchange, synthetic sports pitches in Selkirk, Peebles and Jedburgh, a £1.4million contribution to the opening of Reston Station in Berwickshire, major flood prevention projects in Selkirk, Jedburgh and Hawick, £3.9m for the continued improvement in street lighting and £1.7m for major improvement works at Wilton Lodge Park in Hawick.

And he stressed that, out of the £58m total capital spend in 2015/16, just £10.2m would have to be met from council borrowing, with most of the balance coming from funding from the Scottish Government, the European Union and other sources.