It feels like MK is going to turn into a miniature london soon with all the constructions being planned
Posted by UnpaidInternVibes@reddit | miltonkeynes | View on Reddit | 44 comments
Feels like everywhere I look lately there’s another new estate or bit of construction going up. I know MK’s always been built to grow, but the pace of it now is mad. With all the new homes and long term plans pushing the population towards around 400k, I can’t help thinking it’s slowly heading towards that mini London feel. I don't know if that’s a good thing or if it’ll lose what makes MK what it is.
SeamasterCitizen@reddit
It’s not a mini London, it’s a bedroom town for London
CaughtAlone@reddit
Do we not want cities to be cities?
House prices are rising but that is not solved by holding back new homes. It done by building even more homes.
Leather_Creme_6957@reddit
Building new homes does not help rising house prices. Just more profits for developers.
Monkey_griff@reddit
You really believe that more houses will decrease prices?.. Houses are treated as investments not homes, you think they want their investments to decrease in value? its more money in developers pockets. So is £400k considered affordable? This is the price of new builds planned in Mk. Most are rushed and barely worth £200k. When will the prices come down then and by how much? Interested to know. Greed is the problem.. the rich will always get richer and its open season for them, dont believe everything the government tells you is all i can say.
RumJackson@reddit
People want their city to be a village. But they won’t move to the actual villages because they don’t have all the luxuries and amenities a city has.
Not just an MK issue, it’s across the country.
CaughtAlone@reddit
Exactly, you don't get a Waterstones and an IMAX cinema with rail connections to London in a little village.
Somehow it's unpopular to want others to live in a city i sorta like. Heaven forbid if we need to build a few apartments for those people to live in.
andyournotfunny@reddit
MK needs another hospital before they think to extend it. 503 beds is crazy for a city with 300K+
RumJackson@reddit
MK was built wrong from the outset imo, the centre anyways. I believe the quote is “no building taller than the tallest tree” (correct me if I’m wrong).
The Hub and the block with the Sainsbury’s next door should be the standard. 8-15 floors, shops, restaurants, bars, etc on the ground floor, bus stops right outside, easy access to everything you need.
Instead the city centre is filled with short buildings and car parking. Take CMK as an example, half a mile long and only one floor of shops. Compared to the Bullring in Birmingham which has just as many shops but takes up 1/4th of the space.
Previous-Doughnut261@reddit
"no building taller than the tallest tree” is absolutely brilliant. There must be more green than concrete. Taller buildings are nothing but the greed.
Bifobe@reddit
I wholeheartedly agree, which is exactly why I think taller buildings are better. They leave more space greenery. Where I come from, sparsely spaced blocks of flats with lots of trees and playgrounds between them are the norm.
RumJackson@reddit
A nice sentiment for a village, a foolish one for a city.
A single 9 storey building takes up less space than 3 buildings with only 3 floors…. Now imagine the lovely green space that could’ve been created if CMK was half as long and twice as tall.
ItsMrPantz@reddit
The whole point of making MK was for a garden city, people in cities had rejected high rises and wanted houses. Build up the centre by all means but endless rows of high rises contradicts the entire aim of MK.
Previous-Doughnut261@reddit
Some people do not understand the concept of garden city unfortunately. For them looking at concrete/bricks is more pleasing than the plants or trees.
RumJackson@reddit
Which “plants and trees” have been lost in the city centre to development?
Which part of the city centre can be considered “gardens”? The half a mile long indoor shopping centre? The dual carriageways crossing the city? The concrete plaza outside the station? The numerous car parks?
The new development opposite the Xscape centre was an abandoned plot of concrete for well over a decade.
The Almere on Avery Blvd was built on, once again, a brownfield site that was concrete, weeds and rocks since at least 2009.
Hotel La Tour was built on parking spaces for Centre MK. The multistorey car park behind it was built on top of a previous surface car park.
The plans for the tallest building in MK are to be built on the site of the Point. A cinema that’s been closed down for 16 years.
Those are the biggest completed and upcoming developments in the city centre. None of which were on green space, and ironically, replaced inaccessible lots of “concrete/bricks”.
hyperbongwizard420@reddit
I mean in regards to plants, we did lose the food court halls which basically had become an indoor tropical greenhouse RIP. I’ve only ever seen plants that big at Kew Gardens or the Barbican Conservatory but as sad and as beautiful as it was, the site wasn’t massive.
Amazingly, none of the city centre gardens have been touched and they are actually taking good care of them. Would definitely recommend swinging by Grafton Park, hidden behind Deloitte and Witan Gate house.
Problem with the ‘building’ I think isn’t the buildings themselves but the disconnect of why they’re going up. MKCC and the Development Partnership basically imagine the whole city centre, from the train station up to Canal street, to be drastically converted to residential. (Plans I’ve seen even included building on sites at midsummer place and the point LOL) but without a sort of action plan on what these thousands of new central residents will do once they live there. They genuinely are just hoping that ‘something will happen’ lol.
Also - anyone who genuinely believes this city is ‘turning into London’ needs to leave the house and this city a bit more often haha
Unable_Coast9067@reddit
If they retain the grid roads principles so that each estate has its own community and isn’t just a route to where you want to go it will be fine, for me the concern is new spaces are not keeping that approach, just look at Broughton, and they keep downgrading the grid roads.
Previous-Doughnut261@reddit
New estates are horrible in design and show the greed of big construction companies. They are actually trying to make MK another Manchester or London. Terrible idea of development. Let MK be MK . Why do people want every city look like same? Every city has its own character and MK is about roundabouts, fast commuting roads and lots of green spaces around houses, no tall buildings. Let it. be like that.
UnpaidInternVibes@reddit (OP)
That’s exactly it, everything new just feels a bit copy paste lately. MK always had its own thing going on and it’d be a shame if that disappears.
RumJackson@reddit
MK is so far off being like Manchester or London, it’s laughable to even suggest such a thing.
Firm_Parsnip_8285@reddit
Of all the places to live in the UK and be disgruntled about growth MK is not the one. It has been designed to be developed at speed, to become one of Englands largest cities.
Bdlwaller72@reddit
Can’t say it’s a bad thing.Ive lived in MK For 45 years, it’s still badly lacking in any culture, and badly needs some indie bars and clubs in the city centre.
ItsMrPantz@reddit
Rent costs always kill those things don’t they - personally I’ve been lucky for rock music and other stuff but the centre is a problem and things never last up there - they need to get bars like that in as the shops will continue to decrease and get footfall in the evening but I suspect the local fuzz don’t like the idea of boozers up the shopping centre and suffer the ones nearby under protest.
I disagree we lack in culture - I’ve been well served as a rock and metal fan over the years and things like Bucks open studios are great - I think half of it is these organizations need to advertise and shout more - the lack of local press is a serious detriment
rockandrollmark@reddit
Given the size of the population I’d say we absolutely lack culture. We have more people here than Oxford, Cambridge, Norwich, York, Dundee Aberdeen… Those places are swimming in independent bars and have multiple great music venues. Meanwhile we have the Crauford (which whilst great, would be a footnote in any of the cities mentioned), and MK11 who occasionally don’t host yet another cringy tribute band. Oh, and once upon a time we had Bar Central.
Rents have a part to play, but I think the geographical layout kills any opportunity for culture to grow in this city. There’s no traditional centre - or that is to say that the centre is just a big shopping district and come 8:00pm there’s no good reason to be up there.
mishla@reddit
Excuse me Mr Pantz, I'm new to the area and would love to know more about some options for Rock/Metal. Would you be happy to share some options?
ItsMrPantz@reddit
Craufurd arms and mk11 venues are great for metal but also have a broad range of acts if you want something different , Craufurd is a great dedicated metal pub,
Monitor the Marshall website and take the free tour. Roadmender in Northampton just a train trip away as well and is well worth it as they often have the acts that falls between the festival cracks over here either side of download.
Sub to these venues SM and mailing lists, they really do try to keep busy and pack the place nightly.
rogeroutmal@reddit
London has 10,000,000 people lmao.
SabbthBloodySabbath@reddit
Key word: Mini
rockandrollmark@reddit
Bullsh*t. London has culture and independent businesses.
Joking aside though, have you ever been up to the top of one of these taller buildings (most are not even that tall). Milton Keynes is still a very flat and green city.
EyeAware3519@reddit
You mean a new city that has been in constant development for 70 years is still developing?
Nothing wrong with expanding MK, the problem is the original concept for MK has long since been abandoned and it's going to lose everything that makes the city special. I had to wait at a pelican crossing on one of the grid roads the other day, what the fuck is all that about? Can't the build bridges or subways anymore?
OmniWise@reddit
While I agree with you on the demise of the underpasses, I expect they are a lot more expensive and take up more space. Probably also more expensive in ongoing upkeep as well.
EyeAware3519@reddit
Yeah they cost money but it's an investment. What's wrong with making the city the best it can be?
dickripple@reddit
It has nothing to do with an economy driven purely through the profit motive.
EUskeptik@reddit
Better to build in a city that was always planned for expansion than ruin small towns and villages that were not.
Milton Keynes is a fine city and it’s going to get even finer. 😁👍🏼
-oo-
Unique_Bed1541@reddit
Could be worse check the corruption in Buckinghamshire Council and Salden Chase planning approval
Busy_Pickle_1460@reddit
MK still heavily lacks culture
EyeAware3519@reddit
People always say this but what, in your opinion, is missing?
ItsMrPantz@reddit
We’re great for music, it’s not up the centre and never really has been, but that’s ok. The art isn’t great but we do have galleries and bucks open studios, we do have a bunch of other stuff that isn’t up the centre.
Leg1997@reddit
Why would it lose what makes MK what it is?
Building is good!
karikac@reddit
London is not very peaceful place to live. Also, if you provide more spaces for people to live, you need to adjust healthcare and other services for the demand. So no, not always good.
RumJackson@reddit
Living in Milton Keynes is nothing like living in London. Even with the new developments it’s a long way off and it’s hyperbolic to suggest that.
Most cities in the UK wouldn’t bat an eye at a 10+ storey building. You get plenty of those in Sheffield, Leicester, Brighton, Plymouth, Cardiff, etc.
Draven_crow_zero@reddit
What exactly is MK? it was designed as a place to help with the over population of London to give people an option to live within commutable distance from London without actually living there.
So logically it makes sense that it would eventually start to feel like a city like London.
jadeChips@reddit
There were towns here before the 60s construction. My family have been here since before it was MK, there’s history and value in keeping things small scale.
However, there is also value in upscaling and turning MK into something grander.
I think people are just nervous about change and the potential to lose the good this city has. More people means more traffic, less green space and less localised community.
Draven_crow_zero@reddit
Certainly appreciate that, but that can be attributed to every new city ever built. I imagine MK will continue to grow simply because of it's ideal location which is precisely the reason it was built.
I do get what you mean, places like Newport pagnell and such older villages that have been swallowed up by MK.
fuzzbook@reddit
Sounds like a good thing to me