Corporate plan

• Buckinghamshire has 2,100 miles of publicly maintained carriageway
• There was a 73% reduction in Buckinghamshire Council’s CO2 emissions and we are comfortably within our carbon budgets
• 1.2 million country park visitors in 2023/2024
• 46.83% of waste is recycled
• There are 2,100 miles of Public Rights of Way
• In partnership with operators, bus passenger numbers have recovered to 85% to 90% of pre-Covid levels

Buckinghamshire is a beautiful county, and our stunning natural and historic landscape is valued by all. Over a quarter of our county is within the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and approximately a third is covered by the Metropolitan Green Belt.

Protection of the county’s beautiful countryside, including areas of outstanding natural beauty and green belt will be achieved through the ‘Brown before Green’ principle. We know we must deliver more homes and associated infrastructure for our growing population. By managing growth sensibly and responsibly; including identifying appropriate surplus public sector property and actively developing this for market and affordable housing, we can protect and enhance our natural environment and the benefits it brings. Aylesbury Garden Town is an exciting example: putting green spaces and natural environments at the heart of future development.

We want:

• To address climate change, improve our environment and create economic opportunities for clean growth
• To reduce our county’s environmental impact by promoting sustainability, reducing waste and increasing recycling and reuse
• To improve air quality and people’s health, by reducing emissions and encouraging green transport options

Working with partners, we will:

• Take action to reduce our carbon emissions including planting over 543,000 trees, including the completion of a new woodland close to Wing which will contain 132,000 trees and progression of a range of smaller sites under our contractor planting model
• Facilitate the increased use of electric vehicles (including within our own fleet) and support the delivery of 1000 electric charging points across the county as part of our Electric Vehicle Action Plan
• Continue to engage with operators to deliver outcomes consistent with our Bus Service Improvement Plan through our Bus Enhanced Partnership to develop and deliver initiatives aimed at increasing bus patronage and network viability and make best use of grant funding and existing budgets
• Promote the benefits and improve the attractiveness of walking, cycling and wheeling as a realistic alternative for short local trips through the development of a Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan for Buckinghamshire, continuing to deliver high quality active travel infrastructure, and encouraging and supporting schools with School Travel Plans
• Increase recycling and energy recovery rates and continue to deliver campaigns including the LitterLotto local project aimed at increasing recycling quality and a food recycling campaign
• Enhance and protect our green spaces and high-quality environment, through a zero-tolerance policy towards fly-tipping and litter, a no-nonsense approach to planning enforcement, and taking action on flood prevention
• Encourage ‘green growth’ by promoting well-designed homes and higher, more energy efficient standards for all new developments
• Continue to seek to mitigate the impact of HS2 and East West Rail on Buckinghamshire’s residents, businesses and special environment by minimising the final landscape and visual impact of the projects and also supporting our communities with finding resolutions to their construction related issues
• Progress our ambition to be net carbon zero by 2050 (and potentially earlier) by delivering the key actions set out in our Climate Change and Air Quality Strategy