A great place to play

Opportunities

Build on our cultural and leisure assets - such as Dunstable Downs, Greensand Ridge, Rushmere Country Park, the forest of Marston Vale, historic houses, theatres and our many libraries. There is an opportunity to link cultural opportunities in the wider community with Central Bedfordshire’s high profile attractions through partnerships and activities to attract new users and audiences.

Make Central Bedfordshire a place where all residents can lead active lives every day by creating accessible culture and leisure opportunities that make it easy to spend time outdoors or engaging in sport and culture; and crucially, making these opportunities affordable to all.

To provide training and career paths that support routes to employment around Central Bedfordshire’s local tourism attractions.

Challenges

Traditional high street retail formats are declining, and we need to think about how we activate our market town and village centres more effectively to match changing use of leisure time, and increased use of online shopping. These responses must come from a real understanding of local need.

Many people come to Central Bedfordshire to visit well-known attractions such as Woburn and Centre Parcs; but do not spend time in the wider area. Retaining visitors and encouraging them to spend more will be a challenge. This requires particular focus under Covid-19 recovery.

To develop a stronger cultural offer and identity for Central Bedfordshire; and be clear on what is on offer that cannot be experienced elsewhere.

Trends

Cultural offering

Central Bedfordshire’s cultural offering is ranked as “low to medium” by the Thriving Places Index; partly down to its rural nature. Good strategic connections to London can also create a draw away from the area’s centres. There is, however, a wealth of cultural providers to harness and work with locally.

Staycations

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that 75% of UK holidaymakers went on a holiday within the country in 2017.

Visitor attractions

Central Bedfordshire has a unique leisure offering, boosted by a number of large and significant attractions, including Woburn Safari Park, Whipsnade Zoo, Center Parcs, Wrest Park, Woburn Abbey and Ascot House.

Leisure spending

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that some households spend about a fifth of their weekly spending on leisure, including on activities such as eating and drinking out, going to the cinema, sport and leisure classes, and package holidays.