The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) is heading to Newport Pagnell Town Council in Buckinghamshire on 27 and 28 June 2023 for its first study tour since the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the study tour, you will learn more about the council's devolved leisure services, how it manages its broader portfolio, and the challenges it faces.
It's a unique opportunity to get insight into why Newport Pagnell is one of England's most innovative towns. Newport Pagnell boasts the oldest working iron bridge in the country, and several of the town's hotels and public houses have been founded as coaching inns in past centuries. Today's Newport Pagnell offers visitors and residents all the amenities of a modern town.
You will get exclusive behind-the-scenes access to Newport Pagnell Town Council, meet councillors and officers, and visit essential sites. Some of the highlights include:
- A bus tour of the council's leisure services with full commentary.
- A visit to the Willen Road Sports Ground to find out how the council manages the local leisure asset.
- Experience the Middleton Leisure Centre to learn how it's managed and how the council helps deliver the centre's aim of creating a physically active and emotionally engaged space for fitness, sport and wellbeing.
- Drop into the Newport Pagnell Youth Club to find out how the council delivers its superb local services for young people, including karate and self-defence, preschool care, performing arts and a fair.
- Learn how the council has taken on and made leisure services work for its residents on a multi-million-pound scale.
- A dinner with the mayor of Newport Pagnell Town Council and other attendees at the Holiday Inn, Milton Keynes East.
- Opportunities to network and share good practices with other attendees.
- A presentation on devolved leisure services from the Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Association of Local Councils.
- An overnight stay at the Holiday Inn, Milton Keynes East.
The study tour has limited availability (12 places), so tickets will be on a first-come, first-serve basis.