Questions detailed below in criteria - Essay Example

Budgeting for a Leisure Centre Introduction A swimming project directed towards the ladies in the London Borough of TowerHamlets should be a success once it is properly communicated. The importance of a project such as this would be critical for a number of reasons. They include the following: Tower Hamlets is a London Borough which is situated on the north side of the River Thames (London Borough of Hamlets Strategic Planning Team 2009, p. 3). Some of the areas in this borough have a high risk of flooding.

Areas of low ground can be found in South Bromley, Wapping and Isle of Dog (Hernandez 2011). According to Environmental Agency (2011) 31% - 37,600 properties which are located along the southern part of the borough are prone to flooding and even though the Thames barrier provides a protective defence for 98% of these properties, flooding could still happen and the consequences could be disastrous. In light of this a project to get ladies to swim would be beneficial when taking into consideration safety concerns in relating to flooding and the ability to swim to safety in the event that such an event occurs.

Getting ladies to learn to swim means that their children and partners who are not able to swim will become interested in learning as well. The question therefore is - How will the project coordinator reach them in order to get them interested? How to reach the target group?Instead of preparing flyers and dropping them in mail boxes in Tower Hamlets, which can be very costly, the internet and social media is an effective way of reaching and communicating with people. Websites like Facebook, You Tube, Yahoo!

and Google are some of the sites that are most visited and which could be tapped into. This project will not be successful without getting the ladies of Tower Hamlets involved. Therefore, the advertisements will focus on the unique features of Tower Hamlet which have already been noted that makes it so important for all especially the ladies to learn to swim. In addition to being a great form of exercise, it can be done regardless of the weather. Furthermore, swimming is a great way to reduce the risk of obesity.

How to make the project work?In order to make the project work the £10,000 needs to be carefully budgeted. This amount is relatively small and so it is important to utilize resources within Tower Hamlet in order to remain within the means of the budget. The preparation of a financial budget is therefore critical to the success of the project. Preparing a budget is not always easy. However, it is important to understand that the total expenditure budgeted needs to be within the budget which is £10,000.

The amount budgeted for each expense would depend on the going costs of providing these services and so steps should be taken to ascertain these. Some of the things to be considered (assuming that the infrastructure is already in place) include:Advertising and promotional costs to interest the ladies – 30%/£3,000 of budgetFunds to pay staff including coach and lifeguard for additional hours - 40%/£4,000 Additional costs such as cleaning and maintenance that will be required to keep the facility functional outside of regular hours - 20%/£2,000Other unforeseen costs – 10%/£1,000The possibility exists that the focus on ladies will draw other people to support the programme and therefore increase the revenue generation capability of the leisure centre(s) involved in the project.

This, it is hoped will help free up some of the amounts budgeted and so will be able to increase the amounts available to defray the cost for the time spent by the project coordinator. It is also assumed that the costs of cleaning and treating swimming pool(s) are already covered. The amounts budgeted are low because of financial constraints. Therefore, in addition to donations from businesses, the services of volunteer workers would have to be sought. If a new leisure centre was to be considered on this budget, financial assistance would have to be sought to set up the centre which would cost multiples of the £10,000 budgeted.

The swimming pool alone would cost in excess of £150,000 for this kind of facility (Custom n.d.) ReferencesEnvironmental Agency. (2011). Tower Hamlets: London Borough Environmental Fact Sheet. Available at: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/Research/Tower_Hamlets_2011.pdf. [Accessed 14 February 2012]Hernandez, M. (2011). Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment for London Borough of Tower Hamlets. [Online] Available at: http://publications.environment-agency.gov.uk/PDF/FLHO1211BVNS-E-E.pdf. [Accessed 14 February 2012]London Borough of Hamlets Strategic Planning Team (2009).

Flood Risk and the Core Strategy General Sequential Test. Available at: www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/idoc.ashx?docid=36ea5d08-a496-46dd-8d0f. [Accessed 14 February 2012]Compass. Costs, Prices & Quotes of Building a Swimming Pool in your garden. (n.d.). Available at: http://www.compass-pools.co.uk/pools/faqs/cost-prices-quotes-of-building-a-swimming-pool/. [Accessed 22 February 2012]