Milton Keynes

Introduction

Milton Keynes is a ‘new’ city situated halfway between Birmingham and London. It is set within a rural area, some of which is administered by Milton Keynes Council.  Milton Keynes is well served by strategic transport links being on the West Coast main railway line and M1 motorway and near to regional airports at Birmingham and Luton. It is within the South East Government Office region, but adjoins the East and East Midlands regions.

The new city was designated in 1967. At this time, the population of 67,000 was concentrated mainly in three towns - Wolverton, Bletchley and Newport Pagnell, with some smaller towns and a number of villages. Since that time the population has grown more or less constantly and now 220,000 people live in the borough. Most live in the new city itself which has become a coherent urban area. The Council also administers the rural area north of the city towards Northampton, which includes the towns of Newport Pagnell, Olney, and many villages. The importance of growth to Milton Keynes is reflected by its designation by Government as a 'growth area' and position within the Milton Keynes and South Midlands sub-region - arrangements which support the delivery of growth in the area.

Milton Keynes is unusual for the UK in that it is designed around a grid (approximately 1km spacing) of high speed roads. Within each 'gridsquare' are the residential, commercial and other developments. The development pattern is generally of low rise buildings at a low density, but in recent years the density of development has been increasing in line with national planning guidance.

Recent Visits

None of note

Demographics for Milton Keynes

Mid-2006 Population Estimates

Figures updated annually. Last update August 2007. Source: Office for National Statistics.

Children and Learners

Crime

• the Milton Keynes Community Safety Partnership was allocated £262,000 during 2005-06 to reduce crime in their area under the Safer & Stronger Communities Fund
• the partnership was allocated £25,000 to tackle anti-social behaviour for 2004-05 with a further £25,000 for 2005-06 and £25,000 for 2006-07
• Communities and Local Government (CLG) has supported the Milton Keynes Community Safety Wardens Scheme for the past three years with funding of over £500,000. The funding ceased in March 2005 but a further year’s funding of almost £190,000 was allocated for 2005-06 to enable the scheme to generate further funding until March 2006.
• almost £190,000 has been allocated to the Basic Command Unit fund in 2005/06 to help reduce crime in Milton Keynes to  improve the standard of life for its inhabitants.
• the Drug Action Team (DAT) benefited from an allocation of nearly £140,000 from the Partnership Support Grant fund, for 2004-05 and 2005-06.

Transport

• Capital Funding of £144m was awarded from the English Partnerships for 2005-06
• Committed Schemes funded in part by the Community Infrastructure Fund including, £24m towards the £115m cost of the Milton Keynes Railway Station and £8.4m towards the £11m total cost of Junction 14 M1 area improvements
• the Central Milton Keynes Public Transport Improvements Major Scheme was included in the list of transport projects to be funded by Government prior to 2011, announced on 6 July 2006 by the Department for Transport. This followed advice to Government from the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) and partners
• In the three year local transport capital settlement for 2008/9-2010/11 Milton Keynes Council received for 2008/9 £4.84 million for integrated transport and highways capital maintenance. It also received additional grant funding of £0.6m for road safety and for maintenance of detrunked roads. In 2006 Milton Keynes second local transport plan for 2006-11 was assessed as 'fair'
• The area has seen a 10% increase in bus patronage since 2000-01

Regeneration

• £200,000 was allocated for 2005-06 with an additional grant of £200,000 for 2006-07 to fund services for rough sleepers and single homeless people
• over £5.2m was allocated in 2006-07 for the Supporting People programme, one of 23 areas in the UK, funded by CLG. This will fund housing-related support services, enabling vulnerable people such as victims of domestic violence, homeless people, older people and teenage parents to maintain independent living
• over £160,000 was awarded to Milton Keynes between 2003-06 under the Connecting Communities programme to help train Community Ambassadors to act as community leaders/representatives for Black, Minority Ethnic (BME) communities
• Milton Keynes completed its Infrastructure Development Plan and was awarded £32,000 Continuation Funding for 2006-07 from Capacitybuilders under the ChangeUp programme to support the on-going work of the local consortium
• nearly £32,000 from the Community Champions funding was allocated to enable people from Milton Keynes to inspire others to get more involved in renewing their neighbourhood, through participation in community groups during 2005-06. The new programme runs from April 2006 to March 2008

European Funding

Due to it’s success, Milton Keynes is not eligible for European Regional Development Funding as it does not fall into the areas eligible for Objective 2 funding or for Interreg 3 funding.