Fred Roche papers july 2015

Tomorrow’s Communities The ‘Future City’ Debate

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Contents Foreword The Fred Roche Foundation The ‘Future City’ Debate

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Issue Paper 1 Issue Paper 2 Issue Paper 3 Issue Paper 4 Issue Paper 5 Issue Paper 6 Issue Paper 7

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People, Places and Culture Mobility and Infrastructure Priming the local economy Growth Change and Governance A Low Carbon Living City Connected Lifestyles Places in transition, redefining the City Region

Moving Forward Thanks Friends of the Foundation & Membership Scheme Acknowledgements

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The Fred Roche Foundation provided the platform for debate - the views of the speakers summarised herein are their own.

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Foreword from The Open University Vice Chancellor Both bold creations of the 1960s, Milton Keynes and The Open University have grown up together, successful examples of British innovation, and embodying ideas that have been copied across the globe. The egalitarian spirit of the early MK planners and the OU’s academic pioneers was reflected in a common belief that a decent quality of life can be available to all ‘by knowledge, design and understanding’ .

Often when I walk to and from work, between Kent’s Hill and the OU’s campus, I marvel at a new city experience of residential roads free of busy traffic, paths winding through clumps of pine trees, grazing sheep and cows, and on crisp winter evenings a starlit night sky free of extreme light pollution. The road where I live is friendly, with people from different walks of life. Shops, restaurants, a library, a gym and a pub are all a short walk away. A regular bus service runs to MK’s Grade II listed shopping centre and to MK train station, with its reflective glass that mirrors the rising sun along the Midsummer Boulevard ley line, and its frequent 30-minute services to London. This is a city that works, and a city of surprises.

While MK certainly has its challenges and problems, it is a triumph of planning. But it is the people who make it, who come to this pleasant and busy environment to bring up their families and find work and affordable housing. Yet many take their MK experience for granted, not fully appreciating that this green and easy-to-live-in city is a product of thoughtful design, for which we owe so much to Fred Roche.

This is why the talks and discussions that took place at the Future City Debate seminars organised by the Fred Roche Foundation, in collaboration with MK Gallery, were so important: not only to appreciate what the past has bequeathed to the MK residents of today, and to protect that heritage, but to talk about what the city will be in the future, and how it can be an example to other places. No city stands still, but it is better for a place to be shaped by its residents in conversation with each other and their elected representatives than left to the vagaries of market forces: as Alan Cochrane in this volume remarks, the city’s famous egalitarian grid structure represents another way for places to develop (and not submission to the motor car as often portrayed).

The Future City seminars were part of an events programme at MK Gallery (another of the city’s jewels). They were launched at the Future City exhibition, running from 6th December 2013 to 5 January 2014, with its fascinating collection of MK documents and photos. Two short events were primers for the seminar series: “Why we came to Milton Keynes”, which conjured up the energy and excitement of early MK, and then one week later, “What Does Our Future Look Like?”, considering different scenarios for the city’s future. There was also a Youth Talk workshop.

The collection of papers in this publication provides a lasting record of the debates, ranging across social, economic, transport, environmental and technology topics. Each is a summary account prepared by a member of the audience that has the speaker’s approval to be published.

The OU has been deeply involved in MK from the start, our academics undertaking research and using its example in course readers and teaching that have reached many thousands of students. The city is now evolving a remarkable role as a research and development test bed. Recently, the MK:Smart project attracted £8m from the Higher Education Funding Council to enable partners brought together by MK Council to work with OU computer scientists on the city’s data infrastructure. The recent decision of the Innovate UK Transport Systems Catapult to locate in MK symbolises the city’s arrival on the national R & D landscape, soon followed by being chosen as one of the national pilot sites for autonomous vehicles.

Milton Keynes is a place shaped by knowledge, design and understanding, with a dynamism of which the Fred Roche Foundation’s Future City debates have been part. It will never ‘arrive’ but continue in a state of ‘becoming’, which is an invitation for people who care about where they live to get involved in making its future.

Professor Tim Blackman Acting Vice-Chancellor The Open University March, 2015

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The Fred Roche Foundation Fred Roche - A Remarkable Man

In 1967 the Ministry of Housing and Local Government designated a large area in North Buckinghamshire for a new city to be formed called Milton Keynes. In 1970 Fred Roche was appointed as the first General Manager of Milton Keynes Development Corporation, working with the chairman, Jock Campbell. His perception, imagination, leadership and foresight helped deliver a radical master plan based on the unique grid concept as conceived by the lead consultants, Llewelyn-Davies Weeks Forestier-Walker & Bor, that provided a trellis upon which the New City could grow into the unique place it is today.

His vision for Milton Keynes developed from his fascination with the Garden City Movement. He guided the development of the city into a richly landscaped place, integrating the surrounding countryside, with a network of parks, which provided a beautiful, healthy environment for its new population.

“He believed in the power - or rather the duty - of architecture to improve society. If Milton Keynes is one person’s creation, it was Fred Roche’s” Stephen Bayley (The Guardian)

The Fred Roche Foundation (FRF) sets out to keep the MK spirit of creative exploration, innovation and strength of vision alive, and to celebrate the life and achievements of Fred Roche who played such a seminal role in the creation of the City.

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Fred believed in creating opportunities for young people and supported the sometimes maverick ideas of young professionals. His particular skill at carving a way through complexity is part of his legacy. Above all he fostered an atmosphere of creative energy and belief in the opportunity to make Milton Keynes a better place for the future of its new residents.

His vision lead to the formation of the most successful of the New Towns.

The Aims of the Foundation The Trustees have identified seven aims: • To campaign for the future direction of the City in pursuit of the six original guiding principles: • Opportunity and freedom of choice • Easy movement and access, and good communications • Balance and variety • An attractive City • Public awareness and participation • Efficient and imaginative use of resources

• To stimulate an informed discussion and investigation based on these principles.

• To promote Milton Keynes as a successful urban model.

• To make the Fred Roche Gardens a fitting venue to inspire current and future generations.

• To encourage young and old to participate in the evolution of their own City.

• To make representation in support of these aims and objectives.

• To collaborate with other bodies, organisations and citizens who have similar aims to those of the Fred Roche Foundation.

The Fred Roche Foundation FRF is an organisation that honours the contribution that Fred Roche made to the city of Milton Keynes. Our intention is to stimulate creative discussion and debate around subjects which would have been dear to Fred’s heart and are critical to the character and vitality of Milton Keynes. In parallel we aim to foster respect for the great urban development and achievement the New City represents.

The Foundation pursues a number of activities as part of its programme:

The ‘Future City’ talks Based on the success of the Annual Memorial Lecture in 2014 the Foundation ran a series of talks on the ‘Future City’ in collaboration with MK Gallery. The talks brought together a number of expert speakers from academia, business, local government and residents of Milton Keynes to address and provide some insight into the challenges facing the future City in all its diversity; How to build a fair, active, equitable community; to understand the impact of new transport forms; to prepare for growth and a diverse economy; shaping the City to reflect the aspirations of its citizens; to deliver a well-connected city; to ensure a well-designed environment and redefine the MK city region, were all subject areas that were tackled.

The series of seven talks proved highly successful and have been recorded in this publication.

The programme paved the way for a ‘50/50 Future City’ event. This will address a visioning plan for Milton Keynes, and provide an opportunity for everyone to get involved in the future of Milton Keynes.

Fred Roche Gardens The FRF has been successful in having the significant City Gardens in Central Milton Keynes renamed the Fred Roche Gardens in his memory.

Fred Roche Endowment Fund An endowment fund has been established with the Milton Keynes Community Foundation to enhance the Gardens so that they fulfil the needs of the wider community.

In addition we intend to award an annual bursary to a horticultural student to help them gain the skills and selfconfidence they need for life and employment.

To support our aims the Foundation will be developing a programme that will include further public lectures, publications, exhibitions and discussion papers.

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The ‘Future City’ Debate A key aim of the Foundation is to promote Milton Keynes as a successful urban model, but in so doing there must be an understanding that our cities are rapidly evolving at a time of unprecedented social and technological change. Milton Keynes cannot stand still.

While the Foundation advocates the future direction of the city as based on the six original guiding principles presented in the 1970 ‘The Plan for Milton Keynes’ there must be an understanding of the issues and how these will influence the development of the city.

This concern lies at the heart of the ‘Future City’ Debate.

The theme was first introduced in the earlier FRF Annual Memorial Lectures, then in late 2013 The Foundation collaborated with MK Gallery on the ‘Future City’ Exhibition. This included two key talks ‘Why we came to Milton Keynes’ and ‘What does our Future Look like?’

This exhibition was a springboard for the 2014 ‘Future City’ programme which is a collaborative initiative between the Fred Roche Foundation and MK Gallery. The programme sets out to stimulate creative discussion and debate around subjects that are critical to the growth and vitality of Milton Keynes, and where art and culture are seen as central themes and a driving force behind the growth of the city.

The programme incorporates a series of talks and events that allows everyone to become involved in the future of Milton Keynes.

Seven key subject areas formed the core of the programme: People, Places & Culture - Building a fair, active, equitable and cohesive community. Fit for everyone, now and in the future. Responding to ‘Vital Signs.’

Mobility and Infrastructure - Understanding advanced transport systems and the impact on city form. Building sound foundations and implementing a long-term infrastructure strategy.

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Priming the local economy - Preparing for growth, and a diverse and prosperous local economy that embraces enterprise and forward thinking ideas.

Growth, change, governance - Shaping the city we want, and defining the governance structures to deliver this. Working together through partnership and strong leadership.

A Low Carbon Living City - Ensuring a well-designed built and natural environment that will work in the future, and an environment that encapsulates sustainable landscapes and townscapes, and a productive green resource.

Connected lifestyles - Delivering a well-connected city, responding to the potential of CIT, changing patterns and behaviour, and looking at new ways of accessing our every day needs.

Places in Transition, redefining the MK City Region - Two place based projects that could help underpin a strategic and economic approach for the future and facilitate a prosperous city region.

The programme prepares the way for a ‘50/50 Future City’ series that will address a visioning plan for Milton Keynes.

People, Places and Culture

Issue Paper No. 1 Professor Allan Cochrane Pam Gosal

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People, Places and Culture How can a fair, equitable and cohesive community be built and what are the predictions for future trends in Milton Keynes?

1. Professor Allan Cochrane, Professor of Urban Studies at The Open University (Social Policy and Criminology) in the Faculty of Social Sciences Cochrane analysed a large number of data, drawing on research supported by the ESRC, to present a multifaceted picture of Milton Keynes. In his view the city is a tremendous success story.

Milton Keynes would not exist without significant public investment that has now paid for itself many times over. It required careful planning and benefited from the powerful leadership of Fred Roche who believed in the power and duty of architecture to improve society. This provided a legacy on which other people could build and allowed it to grow. It has a working population of over 140,000 and about 35,000 inward commuters. It is a regional hub and is an emerging urban region of the south-east Midlands, one of the fastest growing areas in the UK. Milton Keynes is in the top 10 most prosperous towns and cities in terms of growth of jobs, manufacturing, financial and business services and retail. It depends heavily on European businesses which have branch plants and offices in the city. It is a city of migration with increasing multi-culture with an over-average non-white population; 18.5% of the population are born outside the UK (national average 13.8%), yet it has a more or less easy cosmopolitanism.

Milton Keynes was designed as an equal city, the grid structure is an egalitarian approach to urban design. The green spaces of the city are greatly appreciated by the citizens. Yet research has shown that it is a divided city; despite the advantages of the grid system, the grid and problems with public transport also have the potential to lock people in, so active engagement is required to join

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community activities. Twelve areas in Milton Keynes are among the most deprived 10 % in Britain and 20.6% of children live under the poverty threshold. The inequality score is moderately high by national standards. An above average number of people work in elementary occupations on low wages, whilst nearly 4,000 high end employees commute out, mainly to London. Housing can be a source of inequality, private rental accommodation has grown dramatically whilst owner-occupation has fallen. The proposed Milton Keynes city deal is centred on housing and population growth. However, there are issues of sustainability, for example will it be possible to keep density low and what size should Milton Keynes be? How will it deal with the required regeneration of housing? How can it be ensured that none of the citizens are excluded from what the city has to offer? For example by challenging racism, thinking about spaces where people can interact and forms of community action to alleviate poverty concentrated in certain areas, and finally by thinking again about public transport.

2. Pam Gosal, Head of Corporate Economic Development & Inward Investment, Milton Keynes.

Pam’s presentation looked at facts and figures that support the claim of Milton Keynes’s ongoing success.

Milton Keynes was named in 2013 by MJ Local Futures to be the best place to do business in England. Its advantageous strategical location between London and Birmingham, Oxford and Cambridge with good traffic connectivity attracts people and businesses; 18 million people live within a 90 minute drive. Milton Keynes’ economic functional area is located at the heart of the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP), which consists of 11 authorities. Around 75,000 businesses operate in this area with a population of 1.8 million. GVA figures are one of the highest in the South-East and show a continuous growth since 1997 to today is a figure of £8.7 billion. The number of businesses in MK grew from 8,000 units in 1998 to 11,530 today. 380 units started just in the last year- that is the highest figure in the South-East area. The size and sector of businesses are important for the success of an economy and in Milton Keynes there is great diversity in both from jobs for the lower skilled to jobs for the higher skilled, ranging from micro to SME to large businesses.

The Core strategy will create 1,750 homes, with 1.5 jobs per dwelling. That means the supply of floorspace for office and industrial use needs to be increased or existing space needs to be refurbished and adapted to demand. The use of residential and employment land is carefully calculated to provide the jobs for a fast growing population and attract the right businesses. The skills profile for Milton Keynes shows a positive development on all levels of education, particularly successful in relation to educating people with no qualifications at all. Unemployment in the city fell to 2.4% in January 2014 compared to 3.1% in January 2013, a decrease of 0.7%. Although in economic terms it would be desirable to have an unemployment rate of 0% it would not be helpful in attracting businesses who want to recruit local staff. Pam stated that there are many ingredients to the economic success of Milton Keynes however businesses are attracted to 3 main ingredients - location, connectivity and skills. Culture is also recognized as an ingredient of success especially for those people who want to live and visit Milton Keynes. Culture over the next 10 years will involve delivery of the Milton Keynes Vision by connecting and engaging people through various cultural events and activities with the aim of becoming European Capital of Culture in 2023.

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Q& A session: Despite low unemployment figures there are considerable pockets of poverty in the city; this seemingly contradictory statement illustrates a problem of drawing up statistics which are based on the figures of claimants, but do not take into account people who have been out of work for three generations. Also, poverty is not only a result of unemployment but of low wages paid in low skilled jobs, and this is a UK wide issue. The financial support the region gets from the EU amounts to ÂŁ85 million and is very important to fund programmes for innovation and social inclusion.

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Summary: The speakers based their presentations on the fact that Milton Keynes is the most successful of the New Towns. They substantiated their claim by a multitude of figures illustrating the social structure of the city and the interdependency of available skills, jobs and investors’ interests which need to be balanced to support growth.

Mobility and Infrastructure

Issue Paper No. 2 David Marron Professor John Miles

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Mobility and Infrastructure Transport is at the beginning of an automation age, however our understanding of these new and emerging transport technologies, their potential and how they could be applied to a city scenario is poorly grasped. The talks focussed on these new transport technologies and explored how they could work for our cities and how they could be integrated into a transport strategy.

1. David Marron, Head of Engineering. Ultra Global PRT Marron introduced the audience to the innovative Ultra Personal Rapid Transit system. He argued that the system, which can be retrofitted into existing city layouts, has the potential to work in mixed traffic areas.

Ultra Personal Rapid Transit is an automated transport system by small electric vehicles on a dedicated guideway network with off line stations. The Ultra runs very quietly and with minimal vibrations, on an infrastructure that is lighter weight and lower cost than rail. Due to the light weight design the system is highly flexible to install and can be retrofitted into space constrained urban environments.

The cost is £5-10M per mile compared to the average cost of £25.4M for light rail in England. It also enables

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multi-modal transport use and increases public transport interconnectivity by connecting with other transport hubs (e.g. rail, bus stations, park & ride and car clubs/rental cars) to provide ‘last mile’ connectivity. Independent studies show that Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) would increase patronage by more than 100%, especially where PRT can be seen a credible alternative to private transport. In Gateshead a 21km PRT network serving the inner city would increase the use of rail travel by 168% in the peak and 232% in the off-peak. The reliability and capacity of Ultra PRT can be proven by some key figures from its performance at Heathrow Terminal 5. 99% service availability means average waiting times are less than 15 seconds, i.e. 80% of passengers have no wait at all.

Revenue generation is increased as higher car park tariffs can be charged, the car park occupancy is 10% higher and advertising revenue is provided by brand sponsors.

2. Professor John Miles, Chairman of the Automotive Council’s Intelligent Mobility Working Group

Amongst the non-financial benefits are 70,000 saved bus journeys per annum and best service scores on the airport. PRT benefits from segregation which enhances safety and makes journey times predictable, and from central control which allows journey planning and efficient use of capacity. If compared with autonomous cars, the same level of service and efficiency can only be assured if autonomous cars become a public commodity and are able to ‘understand’ the complete picture for the planned journey. Ultra PRT is currently working on the development of further urban system applications, for example in Florianopolis, Brazil, where a 30 station circuit, extendible in phases, is under discussion. Modelling and simulation using existing system technology demonstrate that PRT is scalable to meet future system requirements.

Miles talked about the automobile industry’s view of the future and what it can contribute to intelligent mobility.

The projections for the UK are an increase of the number of residents, indeed it will be the most populous country in Europe including Germany. A 25 % increase of roadbased transport is predicted, but it is questionable that an equivalent amount of roads can be built, therefore thought needs to be put into how the existing infrastructure can be used. Fixed systems with fixed capacities need to be combined with flexible systems to increase capacity. How can road infrastructure be used more effectively?

Intelligent mobility needs to consider how mobility can be increased, safety improved and user benefits enhanced whist simultaneously pollution, consumption and congestion can be reduced. Long-term thinking needs to be applied to come to solutions considering an agenda of automation, connectivity and human behaviour.

Autonomous vehicles - computers on wheels - are one proposition, its elements such as cameras, sensors, driver assist and infotainment systems, allow communication

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between technology fitted inside the car and outside. An autonomous vehicle or one retrofitted with such technology can regulate distance to the next car and make better use of the space available. More efficient use of space inside the vehicle by increasing the load factor, i.e. passengers per vehicle, in turn decreases the emissions per passenger.

A vertically integrated transport system consisting of differently sized vehicles, each working to maximum load capacity, is most efficient. Managing human behaviour, i.e. requirement of spontaneous availability, end-to-end transport, personal space and perceived costs, means that public transport systems have to take a responsive approach and have to deliver a balanced, interconnected system in order to represent a viable alternative. Combined with public transport to cover greater distances, one form of efficient use of the space inside and outside the vehicle, space utilisation can be further enhanced by travelling by low speed pods on under-utilised side roads in city centres, thus overcoming traffic denseness. The information which is needed to plan an efficient journey can be supplied by a handheld device giving users access to the vertical integrated transport system and up-to-date traffic information. A better use of existing infrastructure means that no new roads need to be built, adapting mobility to fit the infrastructure seems the better choice for the future.

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Q & A session: What are the options for Milton Keynes? Is there a model available to make an assessment of the situation in MK, possibly with different scenarios with different vehicles rather than the ad hoc way we seem to approach transport strategy? No model per se is recommended by the speakers, but flexible adaptive systems which provide mobility in a given fixed context, this being the infrastructure you have, with demand being people moving around in this infrastructure. There is no explicit model to be copied for MK, models would be different in all cities. Convenience for the traffic user is key for the success of any model. The Catapult system researches the possibility of using pods on the pavements of the city.

Summary: The talks showed that flexible and adaptive approaches are the only viable solution to react to increasing traffic in built-up areas and varied customer demands. Technology has advanced to a degree that public transport as well as individual transport can provide systems to satisfy either requirements, but it is essential that these systems work hand in hand.

Priming the local economy

Issue Paper No. 3 Paul Swinney Geoffrey Snelson

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Priming the Local Economy How can we prepare for growth in the future, and a diverse and prosperous economy that embraces enterprise and forward thinking ideas?

1.Paul Swinney, Senior Economist at The Centre for Cities, London.

Swinney looks into the economic characteristics of Milton Keynes city centre and what makes the city attractive to businesses and residents.

Cities matter to the national economy, they create opportunity, drive growth and the green agenda, but they also show disproportionate clusters of unemployment, benefit reliance and inequality. Milton Keynes is among the top performers, ranking 3rd out of 63 for GVA (Gross Value Added) per worker, with similar positive figures for business starts, KIBS (Knowledge Intensive Business Services) jobs and average weekly wages. This success attracts migration from England and Wales from all age groups, especially from recently graduated students, whilst significant numbers of 18-21 year olds leave Milton Keynes for further education elsewhere. The availability of affordable housing plays an important role in making the city the fastest growing in the past ten years. Job growth within the city centre was the main driver to make Milton Keynes the second fastest growing city between 1998 and

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2008 in terms of private sector job creation, while many other cities grew by decentralising. Providing jobs in the city centre benefits High Street businesses as people use their services at lunchtime and after work. The city centre is more suitable for knowledge-intense business services jobs e.g. in the Financial Services, more than 1 of 2 of these in Milton Keynes are based in the city centre, than for example jobs in the manufacturing industry which need space and access to roads, and therefore tend to be based outside the central area. The higher density of the city centre provides more opportunities for face-to-face interaction, crucial to the exchange of ideas and knowledge. The density of businesses in MK is lower than in other cities, it has about 5 businesses per hectare, compared to 19.5 for instance in Brighton. However these MK businesses are larger in terms of numbers of employees and the city has definitely benefited from providing larger business office units. The challenge now is to diversify in order to encourage greater business density and so to make sure that MK continues to be one of those places which are attracting new businesses.

Milton Keynes has a strong economy of its own with significant numbers of employees commuting into town, enabled by good transport links.

2. Geoffrey Snelson, MK:Smart Executive Board Member Milton Keynes, a modern city of migrants, brimming with hope and ambition for a better future with the skills to match. How can these be brought forward by using modern data technology?

The future growth of Milton Keynes will be determined by 28,000 new homes leading to an overall population of 300,000 which puts considerable pressure onto the infrastructure, namely transport. The travel demand will increase by 60%. Practical capacity improvements only address a 25 % increase. Smart technology, projected as a big growth industry, can provide different, more agile approaches to help the city grow. Core challenges are arising around pressures on energy, transport and water.

How can businesses and residents be involved in any innovation? The MK:Smart City Data Hub will be capable of drawing together information about how the city and its services function and allowing curation and packaging of data as a starting point for addressing the challenges.

Sensor and data networks are being implemented in trials to gather information on car parking, traffic flows and recycling bins and inform for example about free car parking spaces which can be fed into an app for motorists.

Sensors in industrial recycling bins inform about filling levels and automatically plan a route for collection. A city motion

map is used for traffic visualisation, information about parking availability, rail and electric bus services, vehicles on demand and autonomous vehicles. The same principles of data collection and distribution can be applied to manage water and energy supply. A water demand management system records current and future water status and risks.

Nowcasting, forecasting, long term demand modelling, and water distribution modelling and leak detection are innovative methods to guarantee water supply. Energy use by electric vehicles, commercial and domestic buildings is monitored and fed into demand models which allow better planning and grid management. The business engagement work package aims to support the development, commercialisation and mainstreaming of new technologies within a group of 90 SMEs (Small and Medium-sized enterprises). It consists of integrated training in data-driven business innovation together with hands-on support for business development, virtual and physical demo facilities.

An innovative training programme is necessary to develop the digital, technical and business skills needed to handle and understand data, and design, manage and run future smart cities and to start and grow data-driven businesses.

The engagement of local residents is ensured through a Citizen Lab, providing a platform and funding to turn ideas into projects. Its aim is to harness collective intelligence of MK citizens and facilitate bottom-up initiatives by connecting them to the MK data hub and a network of local experts from government, universities and companies.

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Q & A session: 18,500 people commute into the city each day, whereas only 6,500 commute out. One problem is parking for these commuters, another is retaining qualified staff. Poor public transport links within the city were highlighted as an enduring problem. It was noted that other cities benefit from their local universities, as they attract inward investment and consequently jobs for skilled workers. Another issue raised was that of scale, especially when it comes to the retail sector the size of a city matters to the diversity of shops and products and services on offer.

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Summary: Both talks gave a positive and optimistic outlook on Milton Keynes future. The core data for future growth opportunities are reassuring. It is now a matter of identifying the right locations within the city for the settlement of new businesses. A more agile approach to help the city grow is promised by the MK data hub, a comprehensive collection of data facilitating planning and management of the growing city.

Growth Change and Governance

Issue Paper No. 4 Dr Georgina Blakeley Jeff Austin

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Growth Change and Governance What governance structures are needed to shape successful cities? Working together through partnership and strong leadership - a practical example and a consultant’s view.

1. Dr Georgina Blakeley, Senior Lecturer in Politics Faculty of Social Sciences. The Open University

out to local residents through these two organisations allowed MCC to regain lost trust and experiment with models that could be used in other parts of the city.

Blakeley highlighted the importance of leadership and agency as demonstrated by Manchester City Council.

The regeneration process went through five distinct phases: 1. 1999-2002 characterised by excitement about the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester in 2002 and the opportunities provided by a generous flow of funds.

2. 2002-2006 marked the heyday of regeneration when most of the creative work, e.g. land assembly, building new houses, refurbishing old ones, employment initiatives, and job creation schemes were set up. The optimistic mood attracted visits by high profile politicians.

3. By 2006 national policy attention was diverted and both, residents and officials began to recognise problems of sustainability as funds were taken off the project.

4. 2008-2010 the recession had a big effect on the housing market and housing builders, most construction work ceased.

5. From 2010 the cuts of the coalition government proved a further downturn.

Population loss, low educational achievement, high crime rates, visibly depressed physical appearance - by 1998 the majority of residents in East Manchester lived in neighbourhoods that were classed as the most deprived 1% in England. It was referred to by local residents and council officials as a ‘basket case’. Manchester City Council (MCC) started a programme of regeneration, leading a multitude of groups and agencies, with New East Manchester (NEM) as the delivery vehicle for regeneration which co-ordinated programmes, partnerships and funding. New Deal for Communities (NDM), which was given the name ‘Beacons for a brighter future’ by local residents, had the remit of working with local residents on local cohesion. Reaching

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What remains is a legacy of visibly improved physical space, with the new stadium, improved quality of housing and improved green spaces. Educational achievements include a new school and community library and better GCSE results in local schools. Despite the creation of a few thousand jobs the loss of many more jobs due to deindustrialisation throughout the 1970s and 1980s could not be made up.

Blakeley summarised four lessons that can be learned from the project: 1. Leadership as provided by MCC is absolutely crucial as is the co-operation with national government for the purpose of drawing funds down. Continuity of power proved equally important, as it means experience and political skills and knowledge of local area can be used to particularly good effect.

2. Even micro-achievements within a difficult national/ global context do matter, because they impact on the quality of life of local residents.

3. Regeneration requires public funds and cannot rely on the market.

4. Regeneration is a long-term project spanning a period of ca. 30 years.

MCC political skills and commitment continue to benefit the city and the greater Manchester area.

2. Jeff Austin, JVM Consultants Based on research into the environment in which change takes place Austin developed suggestions as to how to tackle change in Milton Keynes.

Austin presented a large number of statistics to describe the current political and economic environment. Big cities drive the economic cycle and generate growth.

Significant migration from city centres to suburbs leaves room for in-migration from abroad. Austin questioned the policies of reducing the supply in council houses, keeping the supply of developable land as low as possible and conserving inequitable green belts. He identified a fundamental challenge in balancing growth and quality with environmental sustainability, affordability of homes, community engagement, tackling inequality, accessibility to jobs and services as key factors. Growth can best be achieved by attracting new fast-growing dynamic companies.

Choices have to be made between a cohesive networked society that allows sustainable development, inclusive world development, network monopolies, public acceptance of globalisation, effective global institutions and information overload OR an individualistic atomised society which is characterised by environmental degradation, global inequality, vigorous competition, widespread opposition to globalisation, ineffective global institutions and an information society.

Understanding the environment in which change is to take place and the context for governance determines the skills needed by key leaders (from a custodian in a repetitive environment to a creator in a ‘surpriseful’ environment), the culture of change (from stability seeking to opportunity creating), the rewards given for any goal ranging from longevity to opportunity creation. It influences attitudes towards problem solving, the key management system,

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the responsiveness of general management and the key data base. Failure to achieve long term improvement is commonly linked to human factors, fear and anxiety of managers and staff not being addressed, poor project management and weak teamwork, non-understanding of the culture of the organisation and a lack of leadership skills impede success. Addressing problems of resistance, control and power positively influence the dynamics of change. This is critical to satisfying professional foci today; you build properly and better with practice.

have led to a de-skilling of local government officers and members. Building local capacity to adapt and respond is more important than an exact vision of urban form. That capacity to deliver city change is made up by all those who are engaged in political parties, social and community development and they should be allowed to pull the levers to enable growth, i.e. being a catalyst in employment and housing decisions.

Austin proposed three specific measures for change in Milton Keynes, leading to an increase of accountability to MK’s residents and businesses:

Q & A session: Raised questions about how public money is raised and where it is spent. Should developers be allowed to take away large profits from charitable or public projects? How can the interdependencies of local and central government be managed to ensure sustainable long term planning that is not influenced by political constellations? How can community asset building be achieved?

1. Freedom to make appropriate investments into its infrastructure to cater for the growth of its population and economy and to promote additional economic growth to the benefit of the subregion.

2. Relaxed restrictions on borrowing for capital investment.

3. Full control of property taxes, providing autonomy to invest in MK. He argued that greater freedom from central government prescription in setting fees and charges would allow more flexibility to respond to local needs and to promote growth.

Recent cuts and successive reductions in financial freedoms

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Summary: Both talks showed strong evidence for the need to engage local skills and knowledge into any process of change. Independence from central government’s potentially restrictive policies enables local leadership and governance.

A Low Carbon Living City

Issue Paper No. 5 Dr. Liz Varga Professor Rachel Cooper

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A Low Carbon Living City Both talks engaged with the topic of how to ensure the development of future welldesigned, built and natural environments. How can theoretical frameworks and academic measuring methods help to design a built environment that encapsulates sustainable landscapes and townscapes, and a productive green resource?

1. Dr. Liz Varga, Low Carbon Liveable Cities - A complex systems perspective Based on her opening question ‘Why liveable cities?’ Varga explored the challenges of a desirable city environment.

She argued that inclusive design processes are needed to imagine ways to achieve desired goals. Varga presented the city of Cleveland, Ohio as an example of how a city in decline can reinvent itself.

Cities attract talent and energy, and pour out economic activity, innovation and information. As a prerequisite to attracting business and the brightest and best people, city designers need to think about what makes a city an attractive place, including good quality buildings and infrastructure, resilience to climate change impacts, good offers of education and art, green spaces and transport systems.

Infrastructure (energy, transport, water, waste and telecoms) systems necessitate investment for the long term, as they are both publicly and privately financed and

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embedded in urban development within the context of regional and national connections. They have to be low carbon, and more broadly, ecologically friendly, resilient to shocks, and with the capability to adapt and grow through diversity. A complex systems perspective recognises that cities are dynamic systems which adapt, grow and coevolve with their environment. Cities are inter-dependent, non-linear, and comparable to complex eco-systems.

Challenges for future cities include population growth, climate change, demographic changes to ageing populations, security, governance and political leadership, rising utility costs and economic viability. It is helpful to consider alternate future cities which can be best explored by extrapolating two or more of these challenges.

Alternatively the method of backcasting can be used to encourage a pro-active conceptualisation of the future, not merely based on what is currently in place, but to imagine desirable futures in which, for example, technologies and people’s behaviours are making cities low-carbon and liveable. Its starting point is the perceived future which addresses uncertainties about current challenges.

To achieve the transition to a sustainable and low carbon economy, frameworks are needed for analysing the dynamic interactions of social and technological elements and their co-evolution with multi-level e.g. micro-mesomacro perspectives. Considering the interlinked nature of the challenges the steering of a city towards desirable outcomes needs to consider approaches to all of: the economy, environment and society. For resource and environment sustainability, approaches such as ecosystem services and local food production and agriculture might be considered. Economic viability needs to consider new business models and innovation, including experimentation with various technologies such as driverless vehicles, and future generation telecoms. Liveability and desirability measures need to redefine concepts for homes and gardens, future leisure and work patterns, education and well-being.

Varga cited Cleveland as a successful example of the implementation of these concepts. The city rethought their approach to planning the future after losing lots of businesses and part of their population. They came up with an integrated system of initiatives that includes energy consumption reduction, innovative transportation with the first ‘solarail’, and health care from the perspective of well-care instead of sick-care. A new metric of success was based on human flourishing instead of GDP.

2. Professor Rachel Cooper, University of Lancaster, Liveability EPSRC research consortium Cooper’s opening question was: Can you imagine what an open interactive city looks like, and how we behave in it?

Her aim was to explore the design options that are available to create liveable city futures based on measurable results of open communication, positive perception and achievable sustainability. Cooper chose the example of health and well-being to demonstrate how both could be improved by easily realisable design changes.

Liveable City virtuous circle is made up from economic, human and material influences on a place to ensure sustainability, low carbon living and quality of life. Making use of innovative services can ensure that cites are liveable and sustain human well-being without destroying the planet.

The quality of place can be measured by three main factors: 1. Quality of the fabric of the physical environment, comprising design, construction and maintenance of buildings and associated infrastructure, as for example lack of building maintenance, graffiti, rubbish, vandalism, lack of recreation space, public drug abuse and drinking.

2. Quality of the ambient environment includes lighting, noise/acoustics, thermal quality and access to nature.

Noise from airports or neighbours, mould and damp, excessive built form with no green space or views, lack of access to sunlight can be detrimental.

3. Psychological impacts of the physical and ambient environment are determined by density, accessibility, safety and fear sensations and ease of way finding.

Negative impacts are crowded settings and lack of privacy, high-rise buildings, crime and fear as a result of urban form and lighting, and poor layout.

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Its elements are measurable; indicators of well-being include crime, physical health, psychological health, housing, environment, work-life balance, and standard of living.

Q& A session: Questions from the audience were raised concerning the reconciliation of timeframes. The short-term scale of business & politics seem at odds with long-term planning.

The higher density of cities necessitates a quantitative density calculation, consideration of behaviours, perception of needs and the evaluation of the qualities of the physical and ambient environment.

Should it be building for demand or generate demand by building?

Cooper’s design guidance to promote health proposed possible built environment solutions such as traffic calming devices, interconnected street layouts and short blocks, with sufficient green spaces for growing fruit and vegetables to support health objectives, e.g. promotion of physical activity and a healthy diet. Well-being objectives such as facilitation of successful childhood development, independence in old age, stress reduction, promotion of positive moods and emotions, and feeling safe from crime can be achieved by providing good sound insulation and natural daylighting, good air quality, views of greenery and creation of spaces that people can control, adapt and personalise.

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Is it still viable to build specialist cities or should the aim be to build sociable cities?

Summary: Whilst the first talk stressed the complexity of determining factors and proposed a multi-level framework to develop implementable concepts, the second talk focussed on measuring the quality of place and practical suggestions for a well-designed environment.

Both speakers presented practical approaches based on thorough academic research and theoretical concepts.

Connected Lifestyles

Issue Paper No. 6 Tim Stonor Dr Rick Robinson

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Connected Lifestyles The talks looked at the impact of Communication Information Technology (CIT), and how this is changing our behaviour and ways of assessing our every day needs.

1. Tim Stonor, Managing Director of Space Syntax Stonor started his talk with the question “Does technology make life better?” Technology usually implies conceiving ideas and plans for future projects, but it also enables us to reconnect the city physically and spatially and recover the past.

Urban planning in the 21st century faces a number of challenges: Resource availability is scarce and diminishing, date integration overloaded and disconnected, future visioning fanciful and un-evidenced, financial backing short term and unaccountable, impact forecasting inaccurate, consultation problematic and uncollaborative, and decision making hesitant. Traffic problems, sprawl, decay and pollution figure among the most common contemporary challenges growing cities face worldwide.

The benefit of cities lays in their social, cultural and economic ability to manage transaction well, e.g. relations between people. Cities were continuously connected rectilinear grids of outward facing buildings until the

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20th century when fast highways started replacing main streets, thus separating local movement and fragmenting the city. Architects took this further by creating inward looking buildings, disconnected from their surroundings.

Measuring urban performance, i.e. trying to understand the mathematics of a city in terms of connectivities of streets and how people use them, is done by a spatial accessibility analysis of pedestrian and vehicle movement. 80% of retail for example is located on 20% of the most spatially accessible streets.

The designer’s task is to devise a grid that permits movement, space for quiet streets and for people, based on technology used to monitor customer circulation in buildings. The spatial design process consists of observing, explaining, forecasting and delivering to allow optimal use of space. Urban performance modelling can predict urban value; an integrated layout as opposed to a disconnected layout means a significant difference in property value. Its aim is to create value through integrated design, at every scale, working from a small scale to connect ‘things’ right up to the level of a whole city, but always in a way that

brings people together at ground level to transact in public space. Stonor’s company developed a matrix to illustrate the Integrated Urban model, its packaged format provides a methodology how to use data and technology to predict the future. In doing so they try to bring answers to the challenges listed at the outset of Stonor’s talk: Addressing resource availability by integrated places strategy, data integration by a spatial accessibility framework, future visioning by dynamic urban modelling, financial backing by urban value analysis, impact forecasting by focus on human transaction, consultation by engaging people around ‘place’, and decision taking by a bold but risk-reduced approach.

2. Dr Rick Robinson, Executive Architect, Smarter Cities IBM UK Robinson’s opening question was “Tomorrow’s cities will work like magic - but will they be full of humans?”

Going back twenty years Robinson recalled how people connected in ways which have nothing to do with the means of communication used today. Technology has fundamentally changed the way music, publishing and many other forms of media work. Cognitive computing is another example of technological progress; a computer fed with human language information is capable of outperforming humans in a quiz situation and demonstrates how sophisticated computers have become to process complex information. Another application is to analyse the ten of thousands of research papers published on individual conditions and to help clinicians get through the huge amount of information. This is not a replacement of human intelligence, but an aid. How can this form of intelligence be applied to the city? The impact of rainfall and the prediction of necessary responses as one area of use, is just one example. Online technologies such as social media and e-Commerce can create increasingly complex requirements for physical transport, putting pressure on road systems, especially in the form of networks such as e-Bay and Uber that create peer-to-peer exchanges of goods and services.

Technology needs to be small scale and accessible, create value and allow for creativity. It can be used for monitoring and steering the creation of energy and heat within the resources of a community, especially important when that community is in fuel poverty. How much electricity is consumed compared to how much is available from these local cost-free power resources without going to the national grid, is another possible application which influences consumer behaviour.

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Dublin Live Drive is an example of sophisticated realtime analytics looking at the city’s traffic and predicting traffic an hour ahead with 85% accuracy. The physical layout of a city is not always conducive to creating businesses and furthering creativity. Fast multi-carriage ways, urban wasteland and manufacturing areas lay separated from comprehensively redeveloped city centres.

Headsets for measuring brain activity and the direction of thinking or for controlling prosthetic limbs are other examples of powerful technology. But they are only amplifiers of intent, it is up to us how we choose to use it. Steve Jobs said “I think the biggest innovations of the 21st century will be at the intersection of biology and technology”. “A new era is beginning” a statement that Robinson finds exciting and disturbing in equal measure.

He argues that the real power of technology lays in helping us to connect with each other. The most important part of it is to engage in conversation and debate, not only about the kind of city we want to create, but the sort of people we might want to become over the next ten to twenty years.

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Q & A session: Can we use technology to get back things we lost thirty years ago? And how can the use of technology impact on future plans for Milton Keynes? It was created around the motor car, around the connections that make it easy to travel great distances, but cities that survive are those which manage these across the global and local scale. Technology can help in this debate by putting objective data on the table instead of opinions. Serendipity does not yet happen online, it still needs the physicality of space.

Summary: The underlying theme of the event was to go back to the past in the interest of a better future.

Technology allows us to explore past, present and future models thus predicting what we are going to want.

Technology also facilitates open informed discussions, joining top-down and bottom-up creative processes.

Places in transition, redefining the City Region

Issue Paper No. 7 Patricia Willoughby Caryl Jones

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Places in transition, redefining the City Region This last talk focussed on the role of innovative infrastructures, social capital and new partnering arrangements 1. Patricia Willoughby, Planning Partner at Wei Yang & Partners Willoughby’s presentation - titled ‘Garden Cities and The Wolfson Economics Prize 2014’ - scrutinised changing patterns of social-economic activity, the physical form of a garden city and how conventional developments can be adapted to be more responsive to a 21st century context.

Are delivery and government structures fit for purpose?

The Wolfson Economics Prize 2014 was initiated by Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise who recognised that failure to deliver sufficient housing is socially divisive and economically unproductive. The competition question was: “How would you deliver a Garden City which is visionary, economically viable and popular?” The single most significant constraint placed upon the competition was that there should not be a single penny of public sector money spent on bringing forward the new garden cities. Willoughby reminded the audience that the original concept by Ebenezer Howard was a constellation of settlements around a central city, each linked to the other by excellent transport links. The central city would be

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the place to provide higher order functions and the other cities would have their own characters and identities.

She outlined the following priorities for her company’s entry to the competition, the starting point being that development needs to be located where people want to live and where businesses want to go; it should strengthen settlement, transport and utility networks; enhance an area’s competitive economic advantage; enhance the natural landscape, biodiversity and flood resilience; tackle climate change; and pave the way for new technologies. Crucial to the selection of suitable locations was the notion that decisions to create garden cities should be made locally, not centrally as in previous history. She identified an arc of opportunity, running from Southampton to Felixstowe, encompassing Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge; this was based on judgements relating to development pressures, land values and transport links, particularly reinforced east-west links and forecasts for job and housing growth proposed by Local Economic Partnerships. Key economic, academic and infrastructural assets of the sub-region supported the strategic development opportunity plan and influenced three important considerations. Firstly, transition of

physical form necessitates overcoming the historic ideal of self-contained communities in favour of meeting the requirements of local residents: work, recreation and education today take place in a geographical area extending beyond the immediate habitat. Secondly, landscape should be thought of in terms of creating beauty and providing climate change resilience. Thirdly, sustainability should be built into buildings and infrastructure so that people’s enjoyment of their environment did not need to feel compromised. Milton Keynes served as an excellent model for all three issues. Moving on from planning to delivery, Willoughby proposed that moving towards a ‘Shared Vision’ demands cooperation of three entities: the Garden City Development Corporation, formed by representatives of the local authority, LEPs and individuals with expertise in urbanism, social housing and business/finance/law; the Master Developer who brings financial muscle, technical expertise, vision and energetic commitment to the table; and the Community Land Trust representing local, long term and social interest whilst owning and managing the urban realm in the long term. Taking a long term view on the financial arrangements, Willoughby argued that land must be acquired at reasonable cost if quality is to be achieved, institutional investors will provide project finance, infrastructure must be front-end loaded and returns must be available for sharing

2. Caryl Jones, EWR Consortium Communications Manager The presentation summarised the historical and economic background for the decision to establish the East West Rail link and informed about the benefits of the project on local and national level.

The East West Rail Consortium was formed in 1995 with the aim of reopening the Varsity Line between Oxford and Cambridge. Members are local councils and development agencies, Network Rail and the Department for Transport.

Most parts of the Varsity Line were opened in the mid 1800s, only to be closed to passengers a century later in 1967, just as the Milton Keynes New Town Report specified how valuable such a transport link would be. In 2012 a business case for the reopening of the line achieved government backing. Only the section between Bletchley and Bicester needs rebuilding, whereas the other parts need upgrading. This regional transport solution will connect Bedford and Oxford, Milton Keynes to Aylesbury, and Milton Keynes to Oxford, and provide links to national mainline services, and by 2021 to the Heathrow western access route without going through London.

The reason why the scheme is supported across party lines is that it makes sense to link centres of population; effectively the cities with the largest population growth and locations with a concentration of large employers are mapped along the new railway line. Also, recent mapping of the highest delays in highway congestions and delays shows the need for additional transport links.

The benefits for businesses and individuals are more journey options by rail, reduced journey times, improved local and national rail connections, avoidance of London interchanges and the offer of strategic opportunities for rail freight. Equally improvements are to be expected for job

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creation and easier access to employers, the catchment area for business and access to a wider employee base will be expanded, and the workforce will be more mobile.

The benefits for the region are an improved infrastructure that makes the region more attractive for business and inward investment, support for regional growth plans - housing and economic development, as well as environmental benefits like relief of road congestion and reduction in carbon emissions. The East West Rail project also benefits the nation, it is expected to generate revenue after 5 years and to boost the regional GDP by £73m pa which results in £17m pa tax revenue to the treasury while extending the ‘electric spine’, i.e. the electrification of railway lines.

The core services will work by 2019 with a view to have further services added after that date. Network Rail will continue to look at the whole region with a view to unlock economic potential through improved infrastructure and how that could be delivered with improved rail services.

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Q & A session: There was agreement that existing rail lines should be improved to provide the nucleus for new developments as demonstrated in Ebbsfleet and Birmingham Interchange. However, to make it a successful model potential locations have to be attractive to businesses and people. Local leadership needs to think about how to serve the locality but also to have a wider strategic view for the common good. In terms of scale, developments of the size of traditional market towns have the benefit of being the most attractive model for residents, but also serving as example of how garden city development can be done well and used as a template.

Summary: The concept of the garden city is again a valid model to satisfy the needs of residents and businesses.

Integral to its success are good public transport links with local, regional and national connections as they unlock economic potential and respond to the demand for environmentally responsible movement of goods and people.

Moving Forward The Borough of Milton Keynes today has a population of around 258,000, of which around 230,000 live in the former New Town and its peripheral extensions. Milton Keynes has always called itself a city (how can a place officially planned to be this big and of such regional significance to the South East of England ever be called just “town”!); is acknowledged as the most successful of all the Government’s New Towns since 1946; and is, with Aberdeen and Cambridge, the fastest growing employment location in the UK. Growth pressures are generated from within, and there is an almost magnetic attraction of people and investment from elsewhere in the UK and internationally. The original New Town boundary has long since been burst in all directions.

At first glance, it may appear that the Borough has its future properly planned to 2035 at least, because a Core Strategy was adopted in 2013 (incorporating some “saved” policies from its old Local Plan of 2005). However, that Core Strategy was not well founded in terms of its assumptions about housing needs in the Borough, and was only “found sound” by the independent Inspector who examined the evidence, on condition that the housing figures being planned for were treated as “minima” and “interim”, and because the Borough promised her in a public session that it would produce a wholly new Local Plan – to be called Plan:MK - by 2015.

This would be a great new opportunity for the people of Milton Keynes to shape the future of the Borough at least to 2031 and, to provide a context, to look even further ahead.

To keep us ahead and to keep us famous for being different.

2015 was always a hopelessly optimistic date to promise, and the Borough has found it hard to get the Plan:MK process moving. Essays produced by officers were disconnected and mostly descriptive of the status quo and, as a set, were leaden. Fortunately, under new leadership in the Planning Service, the Borough paused and convened workshop discussions with interested people and organisations to enable debate about the bigger picture and the longer view.

An official report is awaited, but many participants said there was consensus that Milton Keynes must be planned further ahead, and farther afield – that the Borough was not a island, and the pressures for growth required collaboration with the adjoining areas of Central Bedfordshire, Aylesbury Vale and South Northamptonshire at least.

The Borough’s discourse for Plan:MK is still under resourced, however, and The Fred Roche Foundation has given a great public service in providing a platform every few weeks for experts to give their own thoughts on planning for Milton Keynes as a city of the future. As an organisation formed to stimulate an informed discussion it has given MK’s citizens a further chance to stear and debate the city’s future.

This is the report of those “Future City” debates, and it gifts to the Borough a valuable source of evidence for and input to the Plan:MK process.

David Lock CBE Strategic Planning Adviser, David Lock Associates - HQ in Milton Keynes, President, City Discovery Centre, Milton Keynes.

July 2015

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Thanks The Fred Roche Foundation wishes to extend a special thanks to the speakers and guest chairs who contributed to the ‘Future City’ talks.

Speakers

Guest chairs

Professor Allan Cochrane

Julia Upton

Pam Gosal

Professor David Lock

Professor John Miles

Melanie Beck

David Marron

Ian Revell

Paul Swinney

John Walker

Geoff Snelson

Professor John Worthington

Dr Georgina Blakeley

Dr Ann Limb OBE DL

Open University.

Milton Keynes Council.

Automotive Council, Arup.

Head of Engineering, Ultra.

Senior economist, Centre for Cities.

Smart:MK, Milton Keynes Council.

Senior Lecturer in Politics, Open University.

Jeff Austin

JVM Consulting.

Professor Rachel Cooper

University of Lancaster, Liveability EPSRC research consortium.

Dr. Liz Varga.

Cranfield University.

Dr. Rick Robinson

Executive Architect, Smarter Cities IBM UK

Tim Stonor

Space Syntax.

Patricia Willoughby

Planning Partner , Wei Yang & Partners.

Caryl Jones Communications Manager, East West Rail Consortium.

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MK Community Foundation.

CBE.

MKCCM, City Centre Manager.

Chief Executive, Milton Keynes YMCA. Chair, National Energy Foundation.

Co-founder of DEGW.

Chair, South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership.

(SEMLEP).

Friends of the Foundation and Membership Scheme Friends of Fred Roche Foundation In order to pursue the aims the Foundation has set up a ‘Friends of Fred Roche Foundation’ membership scheme.

The FRF encourages a wide group of people to help tackle future challenges and influence how Milton Keynes should grow. We invite you to join us and help us build a consensus and future discussion programme. Friends of Fred Roche Foundation will all receive complimentary copies of publications and newsletters. We look forward to welcoming you at our next event.

Membership scheme To become a friend of the Fred Roche Foundation please access the FRF website and go to the subscriptions page where you will find an electronic debiting form.

www.fredrochefoundation.org.uk The FRF is happy to discuss subscription arrangements with businesses that wish to be affiliated with FRF or those organisations that would be interested in sponsoring an event.

Contact Details Fred Roche Foundation. c/o. Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre, Alston Drive, Bradwell Abbey, Milton Keynes, MK13 9AP T : 01908 227229 E : frf@mkcdc.org.uk W : fredrochefoundation.org.uk Fred Roche Foundation is a Charity registered in England.

Charity Number 1059616

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Acknowledgements The Fred Roche Foundation wishes to thank all those people who have supported and contributed to the success of the 2014 ‘Future City’ series of talks and to this publication. Special thanks are extended to Simon Wright of MK Gallery for managing the meeting facilities, Carola Holz for the summaries of the talks, Ken Baker and Caroline Brown for working on the format and the graphics of this publication and the Academy of Urbanism for helping with publicity.

A special mention is due to Stuart Turner of FRF who devised the idea for the series and coordinated the programme. Stuart is an Architect and Urbanist who has a special interest in future city issues. Stuart worked for MKDC in the late 1970’s on the planning and design of the new city in its formative stages.

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This publication kindly sponsored by

July 2015

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