A City Begins With People

KIRA FILMS presents

By 1990 the population of Britain will have increased by 7.2 million people and the growth rate in some other parts of the world will be even greater. One solution is to build new cities or rather to plan new structures upon which people can build. By 1990 a quarter of a million people, 3% of the population increase of Britain, will be living in one such new city fifty miles North-West of London, Milton Keynes.

Here, scattered over the 22,000 acres of the designated area some 45,000 people already live. The future city must be able to grow in a way that will integrate these existing communities with the least possible disruption to their lives. All that is best in the landscape they have helped to create must be preserved to add richness to the new city.

In April 1970, a year after publishing their consultants’ interim proposals, the Milton Keynes Development Corporation arranged an exhibition, which travelled to different towns in the area. Here in Bletchley it’s laid out in a hall where public meetings are held in the evenings to discuss the proposals.

The exhibition, which includes a slideshow, push-button maps and three-dimensional models, is designed to encourage the participation of local residents and to obtain their opinions and suggestions. The proposals for Milton Keynes consist only of a framework, which gives people the greatest freedom to make their own decisions about the city as it develops. So the exhibition is laid out in clear sections to show how, in each aspect of life such as employment, housing, education, leisure and so on, the new city will offer a wide range of choices and will be equipped to measure the changing needs of its citizens.

One of the problems in a project this size is to involve everybody who should be involved; the balance between the interests of individuals, their society and their environment cannot be left to struggling pressure groups. People have the right to know the real possibilities and to exert the maximum control over their own destinies. The exhibition is intended to show them what kind of choices are involved in terms of issues which really matter to the ordinary city dwellers, such as bus routes to the city centre, or the location of shops, schools and so on. One of the jobs of professionals, politicians and technologists is to imagine alternative futures and to help people to consider the costs and benefits of these to the whole community, present and future.

A three-stage study showing the city centre as it might look in the late 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s revolves slowly, to convey the idea of growth over time. At each stage the achievements will be re-examined to see how far they have fulfilled expectations. The models are not meant to be a final design; they are only one example of the kind of city centre that might develop in a city planned in this way.

But that’s in the future. The exhibition also includes many detailed studies of existing areas affected by short-term proposals. Members of the corporation or their consultants are always present to discuss the implications of these; in this case, on the town of Bletchley.

INTERVIEW 1

Member of public: “This is quite nice and quiet down here at present will it remain so or will it be sort of, thousands of cars and ice-cream wagons and so on, all over the shop?”

Macrae: “I think that the natural countryside you’ve got in BrickHill will be maintained for this, for this use, but the fact that there is a lot of countryside here to which there is no real access provided is what causes the congestion of the cars in the few areas that you can get to at the moment. I think that this plan will open up far more amenities than are presently accessible.”

{Walter Bore Speaks}

All meetings begin with a slideshow then the proposals are explained by one of the planning consultants, in this case by Walter Bore.

MEETING 1

Walter Bore: “Most of the roads will only be two lanes in either direction; where there are safe pedestrian underpasses at the midway point, there will be what we call the local activity centres. These local activity centres will also contain schools; effectively all of them will have a first school and some of them will have middle schools, some will have shops, others will have health facilities or local libraries and things of this kind. There will be a major feature, the major feature will be a linear path which runs North-South through the designated area between the river Ouse and the canal; there will be sports facilities, golf courses and various other recreational facilities.”

People are able to voice their feelings at these meetings and many different kinds of issues are raised. The village of Wavendon lies just outside the designated area, about one kilometre north of this railway, where the access road to the new city from the M1 was originally planned.

INTERVIEW 2

Macrae: “You live in this village do you?”

Boys: “Yes.”

Macrae: “What is it called?”

Boys: “Wavendon.”

Macrae: “And you are objecting to this new road?”

Boys: “Yes.”

Macrae: “Where abouts does the new road go?”

Boy 3: “It runs behind us here, and through, straight through.”

Macrae: “And is it there because of this gas main?”

Boys 2 & 3: “I’m not sure.”

Boy 3: “Just that they think it is the best route from the M1 to the new city of Milton Keynes.”

Macrae: “And why do you object to it?”

Boy 2: “Because it interferes with the school, with lessons and that, and the church, up the top of the road there, and there’s fumes and smoke and…”

Macrae: “Because of the noise?”

Boys: “Yes.”

Boy 1: “It splits the village in two.”

Macrae: “It splits the village in half?”

Boys: “Yes.”

Boy 3: “It completely disturbs village life as it exists now.”

Macrae: “Won’t you get better shops and facilities?”

Boy 2: “Oh no.”

Boy 1: “This outside the designated area.”

Macrae: “I see you’re outside the city.”

Boys: “Yes.”

Macrae: “And you are quite happy as you are?”

Boys: “Yes.”

Boy 1: “This village was supposed to be left as a hamlet just outside, outside the city, and with this road coming straight through, well it will just spoil it.”

Boy 2: “And it’s, well, this is alright for old people you know, to relax you know, who want to come here and relax you know, from all the town and that, and then now this has come it’s going to disturb them from… relaxing.”

MEETING 2

“Can I say, on this point, that we’re… if anyone writes in with name and address we’re quite prepared to come and discuss actual further details on these road alignments; and by all means write in please, and we know then we can come and answer your problems.”

“Actually it was a very good meeting this evening. I like the meetings where there is a good deal of genuine interest, where people are particularly effected, I think the… one does tend to get, from time to time, stereotyped questions which occur very frequently and are really not particularly interested in answering, but when one has people positively involved like this I think this is excellent.

We know the kind of quality environment that we, we want to achieve and I think we are very convinced about this. The next stage, really, is to get on with some actual building.”

For all this is only the first stage of a continuing dialogue, one that will be watched with interest by many other cities.

Reproduced courtesy of Mike Macrae
Transcribed by Pete Hamilton

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