City of concrete cows still loved, say residents

Fifty-five years after the original Milton Keynes Master Plan was published, long-term residents of the city said they still loved the place known for its concrete cows and roundabouts.

They say some of the expansion has not followed the principles of the plan, but much of the city is still the safe, accessible and well-landscaped area envisaged by its planners.

One company said the size of the talent pool in the area had left it with dozens of candidates to choose from when advertising vacancies.

Milton Keynes is now preparing for its next expansion after being chosen as a potential site by the government's New Towns Taskforce.

Simon Clawson was just four when he moved from Wittering, near Peterborough, to Milton Keynes in 1974.

When talking to BBC1's Politics East programme, he said he was "in awe of this really new place that was so much bigger than the little village that I had just left".

He said the new town was "a sort of instant community" with estates built around a local centre with shops, community centres and schools.

The town was generously funded in the early days, so estates could be built with all the necessary infrastructure, but Mr Clawson believed developers now have "a bit more need to get things built quicker so they can't build the infrastructure as quickly and as completely".

However, Milton Keynes is still a place where "you can do pretty much anything you want", he added.

As Milton Keynes's houses filled up, thousands of businesses were launched or relocated in the town

The owner of ICR Leasing examined the town's grid system of landscaped roads and decided that it was a perfect place for his car hire and lease businesses.

Will Chapman, one of the directors, said the firm had done "really well" out of its association with Milton Keynes because of the road and rail links and the talent pool.

Mr Chapman said one recent job advert had attracted 250 responses, and the directors faced the daunting task of whittling them down to one.

The fact that the same location has enticed many international firms, as well as big names in motorsport such as Red Bull, also makes it an attractive place for an automotive company.

The experience of Milton Keynes as a location of rapid planned expansion has prompted its inclusion in the government's taskforce's list of potential growth areas.

A note of caution has been sounded by campaigners who say the city's trademark grid road system has been compromised by the arrival of so-called city streets.

The grid was designed to provide high-speed routes for cars which were separated by landscaping from residential areas. Walkways above or below ground were provided for pedestrians.

More sections of the grid will be added as Milton Keynes expands, but Stuart Copeland, from the campaign group Urban Eden, said: "In the eastern expansion area, they've built city streets as opposed to a grid system, which we don't think is anywhere near as good.

"You have people crossing the road instead of going under a bridge or underpass."

He added that public transport in the city had deteriorated as deregulated bus companies cherry-picked the most profitable routes.

Nevertheless, he has brought up his family in Milton Keynes and "we're still here and we still love it".

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