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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 form 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 form 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'Connor, 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'Connor, 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." | "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." |
| And residents still work together to keep the peace. "A neighbour from hell who had parties every night started daily abuse of another neighbour - everyone rallied around, contacted the police and the anti-social behaviour squad and she was subsequently evicted. So there is a sense of community. And my mum still knows everyone and all of their business - it's a bit like Albert Square at times." | And residents still work together to keep the peace. "A neighbour from hell who had parties every night started daily abuse of another neighbour - everyone rallied around, contacted the police and the anti-social behaviour squad and she was subsequently evicted. So there is a sense of community. And my mum still knows everyone and all of their business - it's a bit like Albert Square at times." |
| 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. |
| Well you know how this is going to go don't you - people will start having a go at Milton Keynes; those people who don't live here or just pass through it. I have lived here for 20 years, having moved from Ellesmere Port in the North West. I love it. I have two sons aged 12 and 16 and they have so much to do and so many activities. They have both attended different 'good' secondary schools that are local, the infrastructure is well thought out and, eys, you need to drive a car, but you'll never sit in traffic jams. A lot of very large companies have thier head quarters here because its on the M1 and has good rail links to rest of the UK. It's within communter distance, but you don't need to as we have virtually zero unemployment here. What's not to love - and don't say it's concrete - you can't see the concrete for the trees and landscaping, you really wouldn't know you were in a town/city.Sam, Milton Keynes | Well you know how this is going to go don't you - people will start having a go at Milton Keynes; those people who don't live here or just pass through it. I have lived here for 20 years, having moved from Ellesmere Port in the North West. I love it. I have two sons aged 12 and 16 and they have so much to do and so many activities. They have both attended different 'good' secondary schools that are local, the infrastructure is well thought out and, eys, you need to drive a car, but you'll never sit in traffic jams. A lot of very large companies have thier head quarters here because its on the M1 and has good rail links to rest of the UK. It's within communter distance, but you don't need to as we have virtually zero unemployment here. What's not to love - and don't say it's concrete - you can't see the concrete for the trees and landscaping, you really wouldn't know you were in a town/city.Sam, Milton Keynes |
| I suspect another ghetto full of high-rise, over- priced carbuncles built especially for office drones is in the offing. Personally I agree with the last paragraph in the article; the solution really does lie in refurbishing derelict properties that are in abundance wherever you look.Curmudgeon , Uxbridge | I suspect another ghetto full of high-rise, over- priced carbuncles built especially for office drones is in the offing. Personally I agree with the last paragraph in the article; the solution really does lie in refurbishing derelict properties that are in abundance wherever you look.Curmudgeon , Uxbridge |
| I wonder how many houses that are let out as holiday homes there are.I know that there are an awful lot, judging by the websites for companies such as cottages4U and I suspect that if local councils were able to use those properties then a lot of the housing shortage would be eased.I also wonder what the affect of banning second/ third/ fourth etc. homes (if they were not being rented out on a permanent basis anyway) would be, since I imagine that there are many empty properties lying around the country.Paul, Watford | I wonder how many houses that are let out as holiday homes there are.I know that there are an awful lot, judging by the websites for companies such as cottages4U and I suspect that if local councils were able to use those properties then a lot of the housing shortage would be eased.I also wonder what the affect of banning second/ third/ fourth etc. homes (if they were not being rented out on a permanent basis anyway) would be, since I imagine that there are many empty properties lying around the country.Paul, Watford |
| While building new towns is desperately needed, I dont think the current government should be trusted with the task.Building modern homes on marsh land next to the Thames when scientists are predicting rising sea levels is not entirely sensible is it?Milton Keynes is a souless depressing place, it's good to work in and great to shop in but it's row upon row of rabit hutch housing gives no sence of individuality or character. There are no narrow streets or old tucked away pubs.The place is full of dual carrageways and trendy wine bars.It is totaly sterile.Andrew, northampton | While building new towns is desperately needed, I dont think the current government should be trusted with the task.Building modern homes on marsh land next to the Thames when scientists are predicting rising sea levels is not entirely sensible is it?Milton Keynes is a souless depressing place, it's good to work in and great to shop in but it's row upon row of rabit hutch housing gives no sence of individuality or character. There are no narrow streets or old tucked away pubs.The place is full of dual carrageways and trendy wine bars.It is totaly sterile.Andrew, northampton |
| Like everybody else I had real pre-conceived ideas of what Milton Keynes was going to be like. It is true that it lacks a certain amount of soul and the shopping is very generic but the road system is excellent and the sports and social amenities are very good too. What people don't realise is that Milton Keynes has all sorts of communities ranging from little village areas to Victorian terraces to modern estates within its boundaries. If you ask someone from Milton Keynes if they like living there you will be surprised how positive people are in their responseJeremy Bloss, Wolverton, Milton Keynes | Like everybody else I had real pre-conceived ideas of what Milton Keynes was going to be like. It is true that it lacks a certain amount of soul and the shopping is very generic but the road system is excellent and the sports and social amenities are very good too. What people don't realise is that Milton Keynes has all sorts of communities ranging from little village areas to Victorian terraces to modern estates within its boundaries. If you ask someone from Milton Keynes if they like living there you will be surprised how positive people are in their responseJeremy Bloss, Wolverton, Milton Keynes |
| Have we still learnt nothing about building houses on marshes and floodplains - especially with the global warming / rise in sea level that we keep hearing about? Perhaps I should invest in a wellington boot manufacturer - seems they could be busy!JoJo, Reading | Have we still learnt nothing about building houses on marshes and floodplains - especially with the global warming / rise in sea level that we keep hearing about? Perhaps I should invest in a wellington boot manufacturer - seems they could be busy!JoJo, Reading |
| It is time to return to the "company town" concept, where business locates first, and then builds a town around the businesses.The only way to reduce dependence on oil and transportation, is to reduce the need to drive long distances to work. Indeed, to make it possible to walk, or bicycle to work.While more than one company or factory is needed per town, it is the only viable method of preventing the congestion of cities, and 30 mile or more parking lots, of people trying to get to work.The planning is essential to include conversion of a facility to another business, over time, in the face of changing technology, and business maturation and decline.The businesses must then assist with housing and hire only those who live in the local community, or are willing to move to the local community. That means they work with banks to provide the financing to build homes, or they finance town homes / apartments for their workers, who then pay them back through rents, that are sensible.Trying to build large cities is counter-productive. The towns should all have a target growth size, and that should not be exceeded.Rick McDaniel, Lewisville, TX USA | It is time to return to the "company town" concept, where business locates first, and then builds a town around the businesses.The only way to reduce dependence on oil and transportation, is to reduce the need to drive long distances to work. Indeed, to make it possible to walk, or bicycle to work.While more than one company or factory is needed per town, it is the only viable method of preventing the congestion of cities, and 30 mile or more parking lots, of people trying to get to work.The planning is essential to include conversion of a facility to another business, over time, in the face of changing technology, and business maturation and decline.The businesses must then assist with housing and hire only those who live in the local community, or are willing to move to the local community. That means they work with banks to provide the financing to build homes, or they finance town homes / apartments for their workers, who then pay them back through rents, that are sensible.Trying to build large cities is counter-productive. The towns should all have a target growth size, and that should not be exceeded.Rick McDaniel, Lewisville, TX USA |
| Develpers build houses to make money and go away, they have no long term commitment to making it right. So, why not involve the future residents from the start, rather than a new town, sell off individual plots to self builders who will build both homes and a stake in a community! Whatever, if you build a house, make sure it has a decent sized garden!Simon Mallett, Maidstone Kent | Develpers build houses to make money and go away, they have no long term commitment to making it right. So, why not involve the future residents from the start, rather than a new town, sell off individual plots to self builders who will build both homes and a stake in a community! Whatever, if you build a house, make sure it has a decent sized garden!Simon Mallett, Maidstone Kent |
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