Welcome to City of the Future

A voluntary group campaigning for Milton Keynes to achieve the grand potential of its original design through ambitious growth and appropriate change, respectful of the visionary principles of the city’s designers. Our key goals are:

• The growth of Milton Keynes into a top-tier city, renowned internationally as a business centre, cultural hub, and tourist destination;
• The retention and, where necessary, reinstatement of the original design of Milton Keynes, including the grid road system, redways, and the city’s unique architecture and street furniture, departing from these principles only where evidence demonstrates this is necessary to achieve a safe and successful world-class city;
• The creation of an independent Milton Keynes Infrastructure Trust, modelled on the Parks Trust, to oversee the development and maintenance of the city’s infrastructure, with a charter obligating it to preserve and extend the city’s original design principles.

Our principles in detail:

A World-Class City

We believe the unique design of Milton Keynes makes it well placed to become not only one of Britain’s greatest cities, but one of the world’s greatest. To that end, we advocate growing the city to achieve the full potential of its outstanding design. This includes maintaining and expanding the things that have made Milton Keynes great, such as the grid road system; the wide, tree-lined CMK Boulevards; the city’s distinctive architecture and street furniture; and the linear park system. At the same time, we believe some changes are essential for the city to meet its potential. These include taller buildings in the city centre, a rapid transit system, and more long-distance rail and bus services. We also support improvements to the road network to handle higher traffic levels, including an east-west expressway equivalent to the A5, better road links to Oxford and Aylesbury, more dualling of grid roads, and upgrades to junctions to support higher traffic volumes.

An Independent Voice

This organisation has been set up by citizens who wish to see the City of Milton Keynes grow ambitiously but properly. We have no political affiliation, nor any affiliation to any developers or other vested interests. We welcome any members who agree with our core principles:

• Pro-development: We support the expansion of the city and the provision of new amenities, housing, and transport services. We support landmark tall buildings and all modes of transport, including private cars, cycling, bus, and rail, as well as better connections to airports.
• Respect for the Design: We advocate retaining and expanding the city’s unique design features, including the grid roads, linear parks, CMK Boulevards (including the CMK granite subways and “Porte Cochère” canopies), the system of street furniture and lighting designed by the Milton Keynes Development Corporation, and the city’s modern but classically proportioned approach to architecture.
• Voluntaryism: We work through voluntary collaboration. We do not seek to force our values on developers, landowners, or businesses through government power. We believe our values speak for themselves and we seek to achieve change through discussion, rational argument, and co-operation with private business and local authorities.

A Voluntary Approach 

We believe the minefield of planning law which all developments in Britain have to pass through is an impediment to good design. Far too many grand projects are blocked or watered down by our overcomplicated web of planning conditions and regulations. As such, we do not support using government authority to impose our values on developers and landowners. We prefer a voluntary approach, working with developers to encourage better designs and help them get those plans through the planning process. We recognise that we do not have all the answers, that central planning does not work, and that businesses, landowners, and local residents may have their own good ideas for how best to achieve our shared goals.