Culture and Leisure Cabinet Portfolio

Portfolio Holder: Councillor Clive Harriss

As well as housing and homelessness, the Cabinet Portfolio spans the directorates:

• Communities
• Planning, Growth and Sustainability

The service operates 4 Country Parks, which were visited by over 1.3 million people during 2021/22.

A new Country Park in Stoke Poges is in development and due to open in 2023. The service also delivers improvement projects for local parks and play areas and works with the planning service to make sure green spaces are provided alongside housing growth.

Buckinghamshire Council has 10 main leisure facilities which are operated by a number of leisure providers under different contracts.

Other facilities include the South Buckinghamshire Golf Course and Farnham Park Playing Fields. The service also undertakes partnership work and outreach to support people to be physically active.

As part of the Buckinghamshire Cultural Partnership, the council supports delivery of the Cultural Strategy.

This aims to maximise investment and harness culture to support:

• economic development
• new housing and communities
• health and wellbeing
• education and skills
• coordinating cultural events

The service has also recently established a Buckinghamshire Film Office to maximise the economic and social benefits of filming across the county.

Buckinghamshire Archives’ 3.5 miles of shelving hold collections of local and national importance (for example, relating to Stoke Mandeville’s role in developing the Paralympic Games).

Staff support volunteers, run outreach projects, and work on digital preservation amongst other things.

We provide a comprehensive and efficient library service.

The service operates in 29 locations through a network of county, community supported and volunteer-led Community Libraries.

The Library Service contributes to a range of council priorities, from early years outcomes to supporting people to live independently. A number of libraries are also Council Access Points.