The 2050 Local Plan for Milton Keynes will be adopted in late 2025 following the final round of consultation. Milton Keynes and the original layout is pretty much bulit out.
Therefore, the scope to pressure ‘the powers that be’ is limited. Our strategy going forward was reviewed in mid 2025 and we are considering a number of options. These deliberations will be completed by the Autumn.
As I write, we are eight weeks into Milton Keynes City Council’s 12-week consultation on the new MK City Plan 2050 which is set to take over from the disappointing Plan:MK.
Readers of this column can see it here: https://shorturl.at/16H12 – although be warned: “A guided tour for the published online platform will load when you visit the site for the first time. If you’d like to see it again (after the first time) you’ll have to use incognito mode within your web browser as the tour only loads on a first visit.”
How convenient. The draft plan itself which accompanies the public questionnaire, is in my opinion designed to be such an impossible effort to read and complete with its millions of words, hundreds of questions and links to other supporting documents that hardly anyone will make it to the end.
However, I am happy to bring you the real agenda which does not require much reading between the lines. For instance, the MKCC draft plan and accompanying questionnaire (which I shall henceforth shorten to MKCC draft) mention its ambition to improve the health of residents by forcing them to walk. It does this so many times within this document that I lost count.
It looks very much like the council is preparing this as the excuse for every horror it unleashes. “Providing an affordable and accessible way of getting around the city will support people’s wellbeing and ability to lead healthier lifestyles. This includes a focus on integrating new development with high-quality public transport provision with a new Mass Rapid Transit System at its heart and supporting the opportunity for people to be active and walk, cycle or scoot as much as possible in their day-to-day lives.”
So there is the clue. Once again our council is plodding out its old excuse to destroy the use of personal transport within MK even though our private vehicles are moving inexorably towards pollution-free. What do you think this Mass Transit System will be?
Monorail? Er, no, an actual free gift of one was rejected decades ago.
Underground railways? Er, no, far too expensive and clearly far too good for the likes of you.
Trams? Er, no, they need infrastructure and no one at the council will push for that.
Buses, perhaps? Yes, you got it in one.
We will get more horrible, unreliable, stuck-in-traffic, endlessly circuitous buses taking hours out of your life. Meanwhile, you will be prevented from driving anywhere or parking your pollution-free personal transport anywhere either – all because the council requires that land to build 63,000 new homes – over 53% more housing than exists now.
I asked why we need 63,000 new homes in May’s edition of Business MK, as this is a greater number than the government is calling for. The MKCC draft spills the beans: “Coordinate the phased reduction of ‘front of house’ surface car parking areas along boulevards with introduction of MRT, promotion of green routes for active travel and other pedestrian improvements. Gradual reduction of surface car parking as new development comes forward. Reduce parking requirements in tandem with improved public transport provision. Manage retained parking areas to allow flexible usage to meet different demand profiles.”
Can you see where our fabulous once-user-friendly city is going?
The council goes to enormous lengths to repeat the lies it propagated in the early stages of planning for the Western and Eastern expansion areas and even areas east of the V11 Tongwell Street but still west of the M1 – areas that have no redways and no grid roads.
For instance, it claims to take an “infrastructure first” approach to ensure provision of the necessary health, education and community facilities for residents. It also advocates aligning growth with a new fast city-wide Mass Rapid Transit alongside maintaining the grid roads “as an integral part of the city’s unique design and character”.
It also pledges to expand the grid roads and redway network into the design and layout of new developments. “Proposed extensions of the Grid Road and Redway network should ensure the grid continues to function effectively and sufficient land/corridors are safeguarded for future Mass Rapid Transit links”
The grid roads should also include potential for future upgrading to dual carriageways or the MRT system, accommodate public transport and pedestrian crossings above and below ground and include 80 metres of reserve land between roads and residential areas (60 metres for other land uses).
Sadly, these are all strangers to the truth. They know it. We know it. No new grid roads, redways, overpasses or underpasses as described above will be built in MK. Ever.
And yet the MKCC draft continues. Its ambition for a population of 410,000 by 2050 remains, to be achieved through “sustainable and transformational growth of the city supported by significant investment in infrastructure”.
29,000 new homes are already due to come forward by 2050. The MK City Plan 2050 will seek to allocate land for a further 24,000-34,000 new homes including 12,000 in Bletchley and Central Milton Keynes that would, the council says, “support our aims for investment and renewal of Central Bletchley and deliver transformational growth in Central Milton Keynes to make the city centre a more vibrant, exciting and liveable place (my bold italics).”
I don’t know about them but I get excited when I can park easily and preferably for free.
Another promise made is this. “Manage the level of parking needed to support a vibrant city centre while maintaining high levels of convenience.” Just how convenient do they think it will be when you can only go to the city centre on a bus?
You still have a few days left to post your own comments but – and I am really sorry to tell you this – your comments will most likely be ignored.
God help us all.
Cheerio.