Chris is the chair of the LGA’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Board.

One of the key roles of the Local Government Association is to stick up for local councils and therefore local communities. Currently I am working on:

• the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics
• the review of licensing laws
• developing our tourism industry
• making sure that Sport England don’t forget about the need to fund participation in sport as well as elite sport

But the overall theme is to remind policy makers that a society without culture is no society at all.