Plan My Project - Case Studies

Finstock Jubiliee Playground

This project developed an innovative new playground to replace a play area which was condemned by the authorities as unsafe. The new playground serves the young people of Finstock in Oxfordshire and the village primary school. The playground was designed and built by the community and involved considerable consultation. The community build was facilitated by an American Company Leathers & Associates who had considerable experience of the community build process. The project team needed to negotiate a new lease from the Parish Council, inform the Planning Authority concerning design and use safety regulations. There were no difficulties in obtaining the necessary permissions but they did take time to complete. Health & Safety of the actual equipment was the responsibility of the supplier but there were differences between USA and BS Standards which were resolved by working to which ever was the highest standard. ROSPA were consulted; have inspected the playground; and will inspect every 6 months. All the relevant bodies were consulted as detailed above and a surveyor was used to layout the locations of the equipment. The community build resulted in a playground valued at £242,000 for a cost of around £60,000 and generated a great deal of community spirit which continues to be of considerable value. Although the project was eventually successful and represented very good value for money, there were a number of problems experienced by the project managers. In particular the project considerably overspent its budget and had to seek further assistance from its funders, almost resulting in project failure. Many of the materials for the playground were imported from USA. This resulted in a saving on the materials but involved the project having to register as an importer, get a temporary VAT number, deal with customs and arrange for delivery and unloading at the site. In the event, a delay in delivery resulted in a delay to the build increasing costs as a result. The number of community volunteers who actually helped to build the playground was fewer than had been planned. This increased the build time and the build costs above that which was budgeted. The extension in the period for hiring equipment such as floodlights, generator, power tools and toilets also pushed up costs above budget. The project also overspent significantly on materials and equipment. This was partly due to inexperience of the management team. Often, written quotes were not obtained before ordering and costs escalated over budget as a result. Promised discounts were not confirmed in writing and sale or return terms were not carefully scrutinised this led to considerable overspend which could have been avoided by obtaining fixed price quotations from the outset. There were also problems with in-kind contributions which were promised, not costed into the proposal, but later had to be paid for as they were not given free of charge (e.g. skip hire, land surveyor fees). The inexperience of the project management team, especially the lack of good financial management skills was a major factor in the problems faced. The lack of contingency planning meant that the problems were largely unpredicted and therefore harder to deal with when they arose. The Parish Council were scheduled to take over the maintenance of the project following the capital build. There were some problems with this initially as the project was in debt and fund raising events continue in order to pay off the backlog. In the longer term the parish council will maintain the playground and it will, therefore, be sustainable.

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