Milton Keynes is a commuter gem

Derided for its concrete cows and roundabouts, the stock of the new town is on the up, writes Liz Kershaw

One spring morning in 1992, I left London, got stuck on the M1 near Milton Keynes, and have been here ever since. Not because of a major fail by the RAC, but because I was able to find my own way out of the jam, a decent coffee, and my forever home.

I knew the area because I’d been coming to this part of Buckinghamshire since I was 15, way before Britain’s newest “new town” grew to engulf 15 villages and 22,000 acres of farmland. Back then there wasn’t even a railway station. Just the tranquil meadows, grazing sheep and babbling brooks surrounding the spa I’d been heading to near Newport Pagnell. I ended up in the little market town of Stony Stratford. Both of these historic settlements are now part of the city of Milton Keynes – that’s right, it’s not a concrete jungle. It’s not even all new.

Running through the borough is Watling Street, an ancient grassy way trodden by Britons, and then paved and extended by the Romans. It connected Dover with Anglesey.

The historic buildings that line Stony Stratford high street are still evidence of its former importance as a major arterial route. The old coaching inns, the cutesy shops and cosy cafés. Oh, and estate agents. It was in the window of one of these that I spotted a photo of a stone-built three-bedroom cottage with a large garden backing on to fields for £62,000. I was sold.

I’d been living in London since 1986 and had been lucky to find a tatty fourbed flat for “just” £72,000. I was living the life as a Radio 1 DJ – long record company lunches, album launch parties, gigs galore, after-show parties.

But later, with no outdoor space and a child, I was lugging a pram up stairs and pushing it to the park. I wanted a garden. But even a small London terrace meant a mortgage of £185,000 – it seems nothing now, but back then I couldn’t imagine that kind of debt round my neck, as well as a baby.

So £62,000 was a snip, and the solution. Commuting would be a doddle; Milton Keynes had its own station on the West Coast mainline, which got you to Manchester in 90 minutes, and London in 30 minutes. It also has close links to four motorways.

CONCRETE COWS AND ROUNDABOUTS

For more than 30 years I’ve been able to earn a living commuting all over the country, while my children have grown up surrounded by fields, parks, lakes and rivers. It’s a lovely place to live, especially as I’ve never lost a wink over being able to afford it.

Why is it, then, that in the almost daily articles doling out advice on leaving London for the sticks, Milton Keynes never gets a mention?

What have St Albans, Watford, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Cambridge got that Milton Keynes hasn’t?

Please don’t say culture. Milton Keynes Theatre is one of the most successful in the country, and there are also museums, galleries, music venues, and cinemas. For sports, it’s home to the MK Dons, tennis clubs, swimming pools, ice hockey, ski slopes and motor racing.

And the reasons it gets snubbed: a certain 1960s art installation, and a road system that works.

This exchange on a train sums it up: “In a few minutes we shall be arriving at Milton Keynes Central,” says the announcement. The four businessmen fixated on their laptops across the aisle look up and laugh: “Aha. Concrete cows and roundabouts!” Yawn.

There’s actually science behind the Milton Keynes more than 130 roundabouts. The place is built as a grid. The “grid roads”, most of which are dual carriageways, have speed limits of up to 70mph. At their intersections are the infamous roundabouts, chosen because they are efficient at keeping traffic moving. Rush hour? What’s that?

The spacing of the roundabouts was created so that people would always be within a six-minute walk of a grid road bus stop. Pedestrians cross via frequent underpasses and bridges.

It takes me 10 minutes to drive eight miles to the station.

THE INCEPTION OF MILTON KEYNES

Back in the early 1960s the wise men of Westminster decreed that, with London’s severe traffic congestion and chronic housing shortages in London, many new homes were needed.

They decided thousands should be built on England’s green and pleasant lands betwixt the shires of Oxford and Cambridge, with Birmingham and London to the north and south.

Now, 57 years later, Milton Keynes has a population of nearly 300,000 in an area covering 119 square miles ( of which 25pc is woodland or parkland, with 22m trees). Just for comparison, if London were to have the same low density population as MK it would have to be the size of the whole of East Anglia.

Meanwhile, in our capital city, the accommodation situation is a disgrace.

A young lad I met recently, at 5am at a television studio in London, was bleary- eyed and looking like he’d got dressed out of the laundry basket. My maternal instincts made me curious as to where he’d been sleeping. “Cardiff.”

“Oh no. I mean, where do you live in London?”

“I don’t. I commute.”

“But where do you stay when you’re working?”

“I get the last train every night from Cardiff. It arrives at Paddington at 3am. I go to an all-night gym until 5am – it’s warm and there’s showers – and then I come here until lunchtime. Then I get the train back to my mum’s. It’s cheaper than renting a room here.”

Obviously, I suggested he move to Milton Keynes. Naturally, he laughed.

WHAT THE LOCALS HAVE TO SAY Natalie Davies, events co-ordinator

Me and my husband, Robin, used to live in Brockley, south- east London, in a flat we had paid £520,000 for.

We had started our family; Susie was two and Tommy had just been born. We had two bedrooms and knew we’d need a bigger place. We also wanted to be closer to our family, who live near Birmingham, so we moved out of London six years ago. We chose Milton Keynes because it’s roughly halfway between London and Birmingham. We looked online and there was loads of housing choice. All the developments ( new and original) fill the squares of land between the grid roads and are in different styles, but all with their own community hubs, just like villages.

The house we fell in love with was a £ 615,000 four- bed new- build, but very traditional – just like a child’s drawing you would stick on the fridge. It’s part of a group of six, and looks out on open countryside across a valley.

Robin works in finance, and his job is still based in London, but he works mostly from home. When he does go into his office it’s an easy 10-minute drive to MK station, and 30 minutes on the train to Euston.

I’ve recently got a job in MK, and I work hours to suit my children now they are both at a small village school. As a mother I love it here, and so do they.

There are loads of playgrounds. You’re never far from a park or lake, or river bank for a picnic. We’ve never seen the concrete cows. But who needs to? We’ve got real ones over our fence.

Stuart Miles, press officer for the Spinal Injuries Association

I lived and worked in London for years when I presented Blue Peter and other TV shows. I first came to Milton Keynes 2010 to present the breakfast show on the local Heart Radio station.

I was driving up in the early hours at first. The journey was a breeze – but, oh good grief no, I wasn’t going to actually move to Milton Keynes from London. I came with a lot of negativity. But the positives soon outweighed that. Once I got on air and chatting to the locals I was won over. Everyone had such a positive attitude, and local pride.

I’ve been to other places where people are passionate about where they live, but I think there is something quite unique and special here, because nearly everybody has chosen to be here.

I now work as the media co- ordinator for a national charity that moved to MK from London in 2005.

Milton Keynes went from a village in 1968 to a ‘new town’, but it has kept many green spaces