I will then go on to talk about the ‘grey areas’ within these components. After this I will be explaining about catalyst for change within the local leisure market and then explain the planning process before looking at the different components in more detail. There are many overlaps/grey areas between the seven components. Some examples: Country side recreation overlaps with sport and physical recreation in some cases for instance bike riding falls in to both categories. Another example would be Home based leisure and catering. Does cooking and eating in the home fall in to the catering category. although there are grey areas looking at the city in terms of the seven components does allow us to evaluate local provision.
Catalyst for Change What we mean by this are the organisations and bodies that bring change to the city i.e. In Sheffield there has been catalyst for change. One major catalyst for change has been the Olympic games. The reason this brings about a change is because the government bring in a lot of money and with this they can develop training schemes etc for developing sport. Other catalyst for change in Sheffield would be the E.U, public and private organisations also bring about change. Other catalyst for change may be national statistics e.g. if statistics show that a city is overweight compared to most other city’s then the local government will then try to do something about this for example improving the national curriculum for schools.
Catalyst for change can be looked at using the PEST analysis. Political factors that can be a catalyst for change are government plans and research for example child obesity or anything else the government feel should change. Economical factors which are to do with money and the amount of people in and out of jobs etc. the government need to bring about change and make sure things like this are not getting out of hand.
Social factors include trends which the government need to take interest in. An example of a major trend which brought about catalyst for change is peoples growing interest in health and fitness. more and more pople are wanting to train in gyms and health and fitness clubs. this ment that the government started to introduce more and more health and fitness clubs in the city for example ‘Virgin Active’ and ‘Greens Health and Fitness’.
Technical Factors include the growing interest of the internet, with more and more people turning to the internet to do there shopping, banking and many more things that was once a lot harder to do. The internet also shows all visitor attractions and much more information about the City of Sheffield. the internet makes it easier for the government and council to get things across to the public about what they have to offer.
The Planning Process The local government have a ten year plan which is called the unitary plan. The planning process looks at wear the city’s are going and what demographic changes are taking place for example the growing demand fro gyms in local areas. Because it is becoming more and more popular to go to the gym and keep fit the government needs to make sure that there are facilities available in local areas for people to access. Other things that might be included in this plan could be child obesity, or crime rates in local areas, i.e. car crime etc.