Council adopts first county-wide strategy for facilities for physical activity and sport

The new ‘Active Places and Spaces’ strategy sets out the guiding principles for how sport and recreational facilities should be provided in Buckinghamshire to make sure as many people as possible can easily access such facilities – and that these are as sustainable as possible, both in terms of efficiency and providing financially sustainable sites that deliver social value.

There is an existing network of excellent indoor and outdoor facilities for people to be active and play sport across Buckinghamshire, including gyms, swimming pools, recreation grounds and community venues.

Some of these sites are operated directly by Buckinghamshire Council or its appointed contractors, with many others being owned or run by town and parish councils, local clubs and associations, schools, charities and other partners and businesses.

The reason for adopting a new strategy is to ensure a county-wide approach is in place that guides decisions made on sports and leisure facilities in the future and makes sure provision evolves in line with population and housing growth.

The Active Places and Spaces strategy sets out three shared priorities:

• Improving access – to make sure even more residents have access to good quality places and spaces to be active
• Increasing sustainability – to keep improving efficiency, financial sustainability and social value of sports and physical activity facilities
• Stronger partnerships – ensuring proactive planning to support active lifestyles and housing and population growth

Clive Harriss is Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure. He said:

“Our ‘Active Places and Spaces’ strategy is the first of its kind covering the whole geography of Buckinghamshire and it supports the existing Physical Activity Strategy.

We benefit from excellent facilities across Buckinghamshire that cover a whole range of physical activities and we place huge value on these sites. We know the crucial role they play in local communities and how important playing sport and being active is when it comes to health and well-being.

These are critical infrastructure that support healthy living, which in turn can help people improve their physical and mental health to allow them to thrive in their work, education and community. It’s not always about prescribed ‘exercise time’ and our approach is geared towards making sure we have the right facilities in place to support our Physical Activity Strategy of helping people to move more, more often.

Our newly adopted strategy ensures there is an overarching approach that defines what the priorities should be when considering the future development of these facilities.”