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| Care for the community? | Care for the community? |
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| By Megan Lane BBC News Magazine Plans to build new homes in the Thames Gateway is Europe's biggest regeneration project for years. One of the main challenges will be to instil a sense of community, so that people will want to live there. | By Megan Lane BBC News Magazine Plans to build new homes in the Thames Gateway is Europe's biggest regeneration project for years. One of the main challenges will be to instil a sense of community, so that people will want to live there. |
| As Milton Keynes turns 40, plans have been unveiled for its modern-day counterpart - 160,000 new homes to be built on the scruffy marshland and former industrial sites that snake along the Thames. | As Milton Keynes turns 40, plans have been unveiled for its modern-day counterpart - 160,000 new homes to be built on the scruffy marshland and former industrial sites that snake along the Thames. |
| How one of the Thames Gateway developments may lookEnlarge Image This 21st Century incarnation no longer bears the title of British New Town, with its post-war connotations of concrete and social engineering. Instead it is called an eco region, reflecting today's concern for the environment. | How one of the Thames Gateway developments may lookEnlarge Image This 21st Century incarnation no longer bears the title of British New Town, with its post-war connotations of concrete and social engineering. Instead it is called an eco region, reflecting today's concern for the environment. |
| And there's the rub. Ask a future resident where they live and what will they say? "The Thames Gateway," is no answer, being too amorphous a location to identify with. It has no centre, no focus. No surprise, then, that the assorted developments will be clustered around existing settlements, an attempt to absorb a sense of community by osmosis. | And there's the rub. Ask a future resident where they live and what will they say? "The Thames Gateway," is no answer, being too amorphous a location to identify with. It has no centre, no focus. No surprise, then, that the assorted developments will be clustered around existing settlements, an attempt to absorb a sense of community by osmosis. |
| But at least new towns have names, christened at their inception:Stevenage, Kilbride, Runcorn, Milton Keynes. Love them or hate them, inhabitants know where they live. | But at least new towns have names, christened at their inception:Stevenage, Kilbride, Runcorn, Milton Keynes. Love them or hate them, inhabitants know where they live. |
| For all the new schools, medical facilities and transport links planned for the Thames Gateway, what makes a group of houses into a community is a mix of people who commit to living there long-term.Detractors such as the architect Sir Terry Farrell have warned that creating villages from scratch risks repeating the "ghetto effect" of the post-war new towns. | For all the new schools, medical facilities and transport links planned for the Thames Gateway, what makes a group of houses into a community is a mix of people who commit to living there long-term.Detractors such as the architect Sir Terry Farrell have warned that creating villages from scratch risks repeating the "ghetto effect" of the post-war new towns. |
| New towns for old | New towns for old |
| New towns were built with all the reforming zeal of the post-World War II era. When the New Towns Committee was formed in October 1945, its chairman was Lord Reith, the BBC director general who had set out the corporation's mission to inform, educate and entertain. | New towns were built with all the reforming zeal of the post-World War II era. When the New Towns Committee was formed in October 1945, its chairman was Lord Reith, the BBC director general who had set out the corporation's mission to inform, educate and entertain. |
| NEW TOWNS England: inc Basildon, Milton Keynes, Peterlee, RuncornScotland: inc Cumbernauld, East Kilbride, Glenrothes, IrvineWales: Cwmbran and NewtownNorthern Ireland: Craigavon The aim was to rehouse people whose homes had been destroyed in the bombing raids, and to siphon off burgeoning inner-city populations (rebuilding and regenerating the cities themselves being a mainland European, rather than a British, response). | NEW TOWNS England: inc Basildon, Milton Keynes, Peterlee, RuncornScotland: inc Cumbernauld, East Kilbride, Glenrothes, IrvineWales: Cwmbran and NewtownNorthern Ireland: Craigavon The aim was to rehouse people whose homes had been destroyed in the bombing raids, and to siphon off burgeoning inner-city populations (rebuilding and regenerating the cities themselves being a mainland European, rather than a British, response). |
| In 1948 Lewis Silkin, the minister of town and country planning, said that new towns would be places where "all classes of community can meet freely together on equal terms and enjoy common cultural and recreational facilities". | In 1948 Lewis Silkin, the minister of town and country planning, said that new towns would be places where "all classes of community can meet freely together on equal terms and enjoy common cultural and recreational facilities". |
| The first was Stevenage; the last and the largest Milton Keynes, which tried to correct past mistakes. Its planners looked back to the leafy garden cities of the early 20th Century - Letchworth and Welwyn in Hertfordshire, the brainchild of the pioneering social reformer Ebenezer Howard. | The first was Stevenage; the last and the largest Milton Keynes, which tried to correct past mistakes. Its planners looked back to the leafy garden cities of the early 20th Century - Letchworth and Welwyn in Hertfordshire, the brainchild of the pioneering social reformer Ebenezer Howard. |
| Howard built low-cost and middle-class housing around village squares, complete with shops, factories and libraries to create a pleasant place to live, work and meet - ideas which have influenced town planners the world over. He in turn was inspired by Victorian workers'villages such as Port Sunlight and Bournville. | Howard built low-cost and middle-class housing around village squares, complete with shops, factories and libraries to create a pleasant place to live, work and meet - ideas which have influenced town planners the world over. He in turn was inspired by Victorian workers'villages such as Port Sunlight and Bournville. |
| Roads, roundabouts, trees... it can only be Milton KeynesBut the planners of Milton Keynes tried also to look forward, departing from convention by laying out grid roads and roundabouts to speed up traffic. Future-gazing author Terry Prachett has observed:"It was built to be modern, efficient, healthy, and, all in all, a pleasant place to live. Many Britons find this amusing." | Roads, roundabouts, trees... it can only be Milton KeynesBut the planners of Milton Keynes tried also to look forward, departing from convention by laying out grid roads and roundabouts to speed up traffic. Future-gazing author Terry Prachett has observed:"It was built to be modern, efficient, healthy, and, all in all, a pleasant place to live. Many Britons find this amusing." |
| Theo Charmers moved his PR business from London to Milton Keynes a decade ago, and soon followed with his family. "It's the most user-friendly town in the UK - 250,000 people live here, yet I can drive across town in 10 to 15 minutes. In London I couldn't drive to the end of my road in 10 to 15 minutes." | Theo Charmers moved his PR business from London to Milton Keynes a decade ago, and soon followed with his family. "It's the most user-friendly town in the UK - 250,000 people live here, yet I can drive across town in 10 to 15 minutes. In London I couldn't drive to the end of my road in 10 to 15 minutes." |
| He puts the town's continued growth down to meticulous planning. "When I first came here, all I could see were roads and roundabouts. Then I came to understand that it works like a Swiss watch. The planners thought about what people want - to park outside their house, for their kids to go to school locally, and for shops and other services to be convenient. Otherwise they're just building shiny slums." | He puts the town's continued growth down to meticulous planning. "When I first came here, all I could see were roads and roundabouts. Then I came to understand that it works like a Swiss watch. The planners thought about what people want - to park outside their house, for their kids to go to school locally, and for shops and other services to be convenient. Otherwise they're just building shiny slums." |
| Mr Charmers is such a fan of the original master plan that he runs the group Urban Eden to campaign against council plans to fill in underpasses, fell trees and change road usage. | Mr Charmers is such a fan of the original master plan that he runs the group Urban Eden to campaign against council plans to fill in underpasses, fell trees and change road usage. |
| Sense of place | Sense of place |
| Others are not so sure it has stood the test of time. "The whole place has been built around the car," says Tim Dixon, of Oxford Brookes University's School of the Built Environment. "We need to go back further, to ideas that seem a bit passe now like the garden city designs." | Others are not so sure it has stood the test of time. "The whole place has been built around the car," says Tim Dixon, of Oxford Brookes University's School of the Built Environment. "We need to go back further, to ideas that seem a bit passe now like the garden city designs." |
| Planning Crawley in 1948But when the government was seeking solutions to the current housing shortage, they went to Seaside, the Florida resort which served as the set for The Truman Show, the 1998 film about a man whose life is a reality TV show. Seaside uses ideas that first took shape in Letchworth, but its purpose-built cuteness has priced many out of its property market. | Planning Crawley in 1948But when the government was seeking solutions to the current housing shortage, they went to Seaside, the Florida resort which served as the set for The Truman Show, the 1998 film about a man whose life is a reality TV show. Seaside uses ideas that first took shape in Letchworth, but its purpose-built cuteness has priced many out of its property market. |
| Douglas Blyde, who filmed the BBC Three documentary We Love Milton Keynes? while living there, feels that purpose-built towns are too corporate. Amenities are laid on, but what's missing is the "warm-heartedness" of a place that has grown over time. "Everything is so proscribed, there's no way to get through the glass and steel of the place." | Douglas Blyde, who filmed the BBC Three documentary We Love Milton Keynes? while living there, feels that purpose-built towns are too corporate. Amenities are laid on, but what's missing is the "warm-heartedness" of a place that has grown over time. "Everything is so proscribed, there's no way to get through the glass and steel of the place." |
| Stephen O'Conner, of the Facebook group I Survived Growing Up in Cumbernauld - the Scottish new town with the covered town centre voted Britain's worst building in Channel 4's Demolition - disagrees. Born in 1974, he only moved out of Cumbernauld two months ago, and that was to a neighbouring village. | Stephen O'Conner, of the Facebook group I Survived Growing Up in Cumbernauld - the Scottish new town with the covered town centre voted Britain's worst building in Channel 4's Demolition - disagrees. Born in 1974, he only moved out of Cumbernauld two months ago, and that was to a neighbouring village. |
| "My mother's first husband worked for the railway and they were given a three-bedroom house by the Cumbernauld Development Corporation. Most of the neighbours had all been lured by the new housing, as most were living in tenements in the East End of Glasgow," he says. | "My mother's first husband worked for the railway and they were given a three-bedroom house by the Cumbernauld Development Corporation. Most of the neighbours had all been lured by the new housing, as most were living in tenements in the East End of Glasgow," he says. |
| "The sense of community has dwindled slightly as the original areas are quite run down and this has attracted a lot of unsavoury people into the low-cost housing. But you can't do anything without everyone knowing about it, so community and concern for neighbours still exists. | "The sense of community has dwindled slightly as the original areas are quite run down and this has attracted a lot of unsavoury people into the low-cost housing. But you can't do anything without everyone knowing about it, so community and concern for neighbours still exists. |
| On Monday a cross-party group of MPs will consider a question that goes to the heart of building a sustainable community - how to involve private landlords for the long-haul. With house prices high, rental properties make up a sizable chuck of many communities and how these are managed can make or break a place. | On Monday a cross-party group of MPs will consider a question that goes to the heart of building a sustainable community - how to involve private landlords for the long-haul. With house prices high, rental properties make up a sizable chuck of many communities and how these are managed can make or break a place. |
| "What you don't want to create is a transient community of single people commuting back into the city for work," says Mr Dixon. "Getting the right social mix means building family homes and affordable housing as well as flats, and making sure that the social infrastructure is in place." | "What you don't want to create is a transient community of single people commuting back into the city for work," says Mr Dixon. "Getting the right social mix means building family homes and affordable housing as well as flats, and making sure that the social infrastructure is in place." |
| He argues that a solution is right under the planners' noses - the houses that stand empty in towns and cities up and down the country.Amenities are already there; a sense of place also. | He argues that a solution is right under the planners' noses - the houses that stand empty in towns and cities up and down the country.Amenities are already there; a sense of place also. |
| "Do we want to build new homes in new towns?" | "Do we want to build new homes in new towns?" |
| Below is a selection of your comments. | Below is a selection of your comments. |
Add your comments on this story, using the form below. | Add your comments on this story, using the form below. |