On The Road with Vicky Lamburn

Preface to The Plan for Milton Keynes: Volume 1. (1970)
Lord Campbell of Eskan, Chairman of Milton Keynes Development Corporation (1967-1983)

Last night I went to a public meeting and it was very interesting. It had people like the chair, the elected representatives and an air of formality although I never find such an air that intoxicating. Some might see contempt in that, but it’s not, I just do my thing. It also had four excellent speakers and some good debate and discussion. Sort of like a Question Time minus David Dimbleby and the looming presence of a question on immigration! What was it? Where was it?

Picture it: You come in from work, it’s gone six and you’re tired. The dinner isn’t on; even making a coffee feels like effort and for all this you have made plans to do something with your only gasp at free time during the week. And then by 10 or 11pm you’ve managed to make the coffee, make dinner but those grand plans were admonished by the television schedule but there is always tomorrow, right?

Well, last night (April 30th) on a bit of a whim because of the book that I am working on, I decided to leave work early (I can as I will make the hours up) and drive 130 miles or so for a meeting in Milton Keynes. A city I don’t even live in. The meeting would last a couple of hours and then I’d drive 130 miles back home; before you know it I’m back at work on Friday at 9.00am. It is a bit nutty but life’s too short to think, “Oh I’ll be tired tomorrow though,” and, “The petrol will set me back another £30.” Sometimes you’ve just got to do things that are out of the ordinary, and if you can’t grab the concrete bull by its horns, then what is life for?

Going to some council meeting might not sound like the epitome of carpe diem but its still spontaneous. I like anybody get in from work, I have grand plans and they don’t happen some nights. The meeting was dubbed, ‘The Future of Milton Keynes.’ Which on one level I was very conscious of sticking my nose into matters which don’t really relate to me as I live over a hundred miles away, but as you may have noticed from the impression:mk project, it is a place I have a huge amount of affection and respect for as I have been drawn to continuously throughout my life.. I’ve also noticed how it’s changed, much for the better but there is a worrying creep of its ideals slowly being chipped away at.

Not wishing to recant a history of the place, Milton Keynes (MK) is a new city that was designated in 1967 and construction started in 1970, executing The Plan For Milton Keynes, one of the finest examples of British master-planning ever in my book in that there was some coherent thought in it (yes I have read it, all two volumes.) This is unusual as planning is not regarded as a British forte. The city famed for its copious arbour, greenery, grid roads and concrete cows rose from a few scattered villages and north Buckinghamshire fields. A lot of people deride it, but a substantial amount of them have never been and spout second hand opinions. MK isn’t for everybody but one thing is clear is that many of its residents not only love it but are very passionate about its ideals. The worry is that this spacious new city, with few traffic issues, beautiful green spaces woven around suburbia, a city centre unlike any in the UK offering superb shopping and leisure is being eroded by development produced by developers submitting and having plans approved that could be built anywhere such as Reading, Swindon, Basingstoke or Manchester. Arguably this has been slowly happening for the past 15 years (coincidentally but not entirely since Milton Keynes Development Corporation was wound up in 1992.) As one of the guest speakers said, maybe it’s time for a suburban renaissance? The usual conclusion to that is, “Oh no, not more sprawl!” But Milton Keynes intertwines itself so well with the landscape that in parts you will be forgiven for thinking you are in the middle of the countryside.

The truth is I’d probably move there in a heart-beat if it wasn’t for the South Downs and the coast which I just find so hard to turn my back on. Sure my job also comes into this as I do enjoy my work; but nothing is forever right?

Even for these important things I have a nagging feeling one day I will move to MK and in fact as I mentioned in the impression:mk preface, I was very nearly born there.

I have talked to quite a few people, mostly residents on my travels for impression:mk and whilst like anywhere there are wrinkles and creases (problems) in the place; largely the views are very favourable towards the city; seemingly more favourable views per capita than other towns where I have tried to elicit viewpoints. Clearly there is something the place does right and worryingly many of the common complaints of every British town and city have been addressed in MK but consistent attrition has been chipping away at these unique features and is jeopardising them. Banal suburban design is one cited issue, another is building on the large reservations around the grid roads (a fatal decision, future proofing is evident in most places in MK but virtually no where else in the UK), higher density building, and building city streets rather than the current grid system all act to work against the things that MK consciously didn’t do from the early days.

Some people will disagree with me, and that’s fine and I am as I have noted very conscious that I may appear to be sticking my nose into decisions that don’t really involve me. But, I do care about the place as it has been one of the major can-do environments in the UK over the past forty years.

The meeting surrounded the four speakers who represented the architectural/planning, young people/youth, business and finally the Chair of MK Dons FC, Pete Winkelman, talked about the overall vision for the future. All were very interesting and some interesting points were made. Needless to say I did pipe up (how unusual, not!) and surprisingly what I said seemed to go down well with quite a fair few (and predictably I’m sure many were thinking what the devil has someone travelled 130 miles to talk about a city’s future for…) – somehow the words came out. Hopefully I managed to get across that there is nothing wrong with further development but my beef is that it has to be in the vein of what has underpinned MK’s current successes – of which the Eastern and Western Expansion Areas (EEA and WEA) aren’t. MK was designed as a city for 250,000 people and that has been upwardly revised to nearer 400,000 yet the currently allocated space (which is essentially MK west of the M1 corridor) at its current density doesn’t permit such an enlargement of population; unless of course you undo all the things that makes MK unique and undo much of the successful implementation of the original master plan.

Maybe it is time to take stock of why these developments are going ahead. It was mooted by our Prime Minister, Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor in 2004 that vast amounts of housing will have to be built to bring prices down. As it turns out, that has not proven to be the case. Instead greed and the burden of debt has started that for us in a horrific and painful way. None the less, prices are dropping. So should the EEA (which has been started) and WEA be re-thought? In a nutshell I think they should attempt to complete MK’s EEA and WEA to the same original master plan principle’s and reach the original 1967 target of a 250,000 population. This would enable some serious thought to be given to really thinking about what is being done in the longer term. Unfortunately the EEA has been started and there’s nothing more bemusing than coming to the end of Chaffron Way[1] which careers into a tiny roundabout, enters a 30mph zone into what will be a city street. Or as they are otherwise known: a street that is like any other sporadic UK town/city street where motor vehicle traffic mingles with pedestrians, cyclists and having houses built closer to the road; basically a typical English suburb. What is ridiculous is that these ill thought out areas could be built anywhere and these areas were approved by English Partnerships who believe MK needs landmark buildings… Secondly, the ridiculous plans are lumping juxtaposed carbuncles on to the fringes of what is a successful road system.

Those with green dispositions (and I am one of them, I still won’t drive on the M3 Twyford Down cutting for example and I largely always walk to work) recognise as Pete Winkelman said that private transport will not go away. People like cars. They like the freedom they afford (largely) and whilst in their current internal combustion engine form they are not sustainable, hydrogen and electric cars are (particularly in the former case) much more so. So we should be continuing the future proofing MK has enjoyed which will permit this private form of transport. Thankfully the grid road verges are maintained and entrusted to Milton Keynes Parks’ Trust which means they are protected from greed. But these carbuncles on the fringes are not, so where will the trams, guided bus-ways or ‘monorails’ (Fred Pooley’s vision still smoulders some 45 years on) go?

The simple solution to me would be to continue the grid system, expand it, conserve the green spaces but within the grid squares, it is there you can decide on densities. For example, one grid square could be higher density, mixed tenure and style builds for those getting onto the housing market, others could be lower density ‘executive’ housing, and others could be rental with medium density build. Sound familiar? Oh yes, that’s it. The original Plan for Milton Keynes…

Needless to say not everyone agrees but as an outsider I was able to observe some interesting points. A member of the Green Party suggested public transport would allow people to be more sociable. But the reality is that whilst I’ll strike up conversation with largely anybody, not everybody will. In fact I can’t think of the last time someone struck up conversation with me on the train or bus, so what was levelled as a criticism of society in MK is in fact a wider ‘issue’ with the rest of south-east England. People’s lives have become privatised in themselves, not that I am saying that is right but its not an issue only facing MK.

I came away encouraged that whilst turnout was good – it wasn’t a packed house – that some people in MK have a very clear idea of what MK should be and is to them and those views differ. That is great. What I am also encouraged by is the number of people who believe there should be a second Plan for Milton Keynes and that whatever may happen it should be different and distinctly edgy as MK has been in the past. More than anything, lots of people now agree that the principle of the EEA and WEA is flawed and deeply so.

In a final couple of sentiments; it was interesting to hear of people’s migrant mentality and I think that said something. People had come to MK for a better life than what they had before. As MKDC’s and subsequent Milton Keynes Council surveys found, largely people’s impressions and experiences were of satisfaction and more than anything a sense of if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it was coming out of the meeting.

In my final sentiment, most derision of MK comes from its ‘un-navigable road system’ (which I must admit takes a bit of getting used to but after a while it makes perfect sense and is much easier to get around), its seeming lack of anything, its lack of soul, roundabouts and concrete cows. One thing you can say is that MK is probably the best example of a garden city in the world, and it’s in England! You can’t see much from the grid roads because it is so green, verdant and the cyclists and pedestrians are free to roam on separate routes to their destinations. The housing is shielded from fast and passing traffic, it’s quieter, more peaceful. The roundabouts are a good way of keeping traffic moving, less congestion, less pollution and not as unsightly as a group of grade separated interchanges (like on motorways.) Finally, concrete cows: If I said to you what does your town have that defines it in public art? Most would struggle; Brighton has its Palace Pier, but Worthing, Kettering, Norwich? I’ll get back to you. MK is so rich in public art it’s astonishing and it’s very well executed.

My short visit was completed by a quick drive around and on my way through Campbell Park on Overgate (V9) a bunch of rabbits ran across the road, but they were relatively safe as there is not much traffic all loaded onto one main artery, and looking to the verge I saw one rabbit, ears pricked up, scouting the area. It then hopped off up the hill towards the cricket green. It summed up beautifully the rich landscape that this city is situated in, and has pretty much preserved with a great deal of care.

My overriding fear is that a monument stone exists to Lord Campbell, the first chair of MKDC which reads, ‘If you seek a monument, look around you.’ What I see at the moment is a monument fit for the epitaph. In the future, the epitaph may be assigned to a place that is increasingly just the same as anywhere in the UK, and what a sad day that will be if it happens…

[1] Chaffron Way (H7) is the longest grid road in Milton Keynes running east-west and is single carriageway for its entire length. On a side note, it is hardly the Los Angeles freeway which according to one person I once talked to, signified Milton Keynes all over. They later conceded they had never been. Short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHJ3dsiZLy4 (not mine.)