Transport Technical Paper [EXAM 114]

EXAM 113
CBC’s entire local plan seems to be predicated on several of its neighbouring local authority areas (including but not only Milton Keynes) continuing to meet the needs of large numbers of CBC residents for jobs, major destination shopping, commercial leisure/culture, and beautifully managed parks and lakes. I am entirely content that this expectation underpins CBC’s Local Plan (and that MK currently plays such a large part in the lives of many CBC residents).
I believe CBC’s Local Plan would be more transparent, and make more sense to non-specialist audience if this significant activity was stated explicitly and the consequences also made explicit within the Plan.
I therefore ask that, to make the document and process fair and transparent (rather than the document being dependent on facts that are largely unstated, this highly significant aspect of the situation should please be made explicit, with the ramifications (for both CBC and those neighbouring authorities) properly explained.
I believe that the proposed 24,000 new jobs within CB is most unlikely to meet the needs of 39,000 new households (0.6 jobs per household). Therefore these people will need to commute to or through neighbouring authorities, to jobs outside CBC’s boundaries. MK’s data shows that new-build areas generate about 1.5 “workers” (individuals wanting to be economically active in some way) per household. CBC’s Plan therefore depends on those new jobs being available in neighbouring Authority areas.
I therefore ask that this be made explicit within the CBC Local Plan, with numbers (which probably amount to 25,000 additional outbound commuters on every weekday).
I believe that the transport links between CBC and neighbouring authorities – particularly those places with the major economic attractors (employment, retail & commercial leisure/culture) – have not been properly assessed and are unlikely to have the capacity to meet the likely (but currently implicit) dramatic increase in numbers, let alone do so with a desirable modal split.
I therefore ask that numbers should be added to the plan, to show likely total additional outbound commuter numbers (arising from building houses without also building the associated
number of additional jobs locally), the split of this number between the main destinations (including MK), and the proposed road, train and cycle routes at CBC’s borough boundaries where these commuters will cross out of CB.
I ask that CBC shows the evidence that those neighbouring authorities are planning to create all these additional jobs for CBC residents.
I also ask that the Plan shows the arrangements CBC has made or is in negotiations about, with those key neighbouring authorities, to ensure CBC pays for the necessary highways (including cycle route) infrastructure outside its borders, and the necessary bus services, to get large numbers of CBC residents to their destinations (not merely getting them to CBC’s administrative boundaries).
These views are my personal opinion, as an individual member of Milton Keynes Council. They do not purport to represent the views of MK Council or of the MK Conservative Group of Councillors.
The area I represent, Broughton Ward, has a small section of boundary with Central Bedfordshire. My ward also has a number of major urban roads that will probably be affected by any significant increase in commuter travel from Central Bedfordshire into Milton Keynes. The impact of this increase in commuter numbers on weekdays (and shoppers at weekends) needs to be mitigated, and for this to happen, the likely numbers need to be made explicit in the body of the CBC document, rather than buried in the technical appendices.