About local working

Locality working

Locality working gives local communities more opportunities to influence services in their local area. We listen to local priorities and work with communities and county, district and parish councillors to form Local Area Plans, which set out how priorities are being addressed in each area. Locality working helps residents and organisations to come together to make a difference in their community.

Find out more about your local area and Local Area Plan.

Each Local Area in Buckinghamshire has a Localities and Communities Manager based in the county council who helps to ensure the different organisations in each local area work well together and address local priorities. You can contact your Localities and Communities Manager from your local area page.

Local area meetings

Each local area has a Local Area Forum (LAF) known in some areas as Local Community Partnerships (LCPs) which includes representatives from the county, district and parish councils, as well as partner organisations like the police and community associations.

Residents are encouraged to attend meetings to hear about what is happening in their local area and have their say. LAFs meet four times a year and might cover topics such as the pavements, parking, health, policing and schools.

The LAF can influence decisions about how money is spent locally, how services are delivered locally, and has some funding available to spend on meeting local priorities.

Local Area Plans

Local Area Plans set out how local priorities are being addressed in each area, and are overseen by the Local Area Forum.

LAFs sometimes directly address the priorities in the Local Area Plan through the allocation of their delegated budgets. However, for most priorities, the LAF takes a coordinating role, encouraging and enabling communities and organisations to take action.

The Local Area Plan is presented as a three year plan, but it should be regarded as an initial set of commitments that can be adapted in light of changing circumstances and emerging opportunities.

Find out more about your local area and Local Area Plan.

See below for the full list of Local Area Plans

Meeting Local Area Priorities

The budgets that are delegated to each Local Area Forum may be used to commission projects that help to meet the priorities in the local area. We are keen to hear from voluntary organisations and community groups that can with us on projects to help meet the priorities in any local area.

Each Local Area Plan is listed on the relevant local area page. For ease of use the following document lists the priorities from all the Local Area Plans together in one place.

View Local Priorities Document - PDF

For organisations working within the Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) themes, we have listed the local priorities under each heading. For organisations with a Buckinghamshire-wide remit we have also listed those priorities common to several local areas.