The MK East application is in two parts (1) Outline, concerning the overall design of the development, and (2) Detailed, listing the infrastructure that will be necessary to make the development happen. The Outline permissions will be followed in due course by detailed applications for different phases of the development, all of which will be publicly consulted on. But the current Detailed application for the infrastructure is the only opportunity there’ll be to challenge the road & bridge plans.
The Focus team believes that the development is essential to the future of our city. 60% of the houses it will provide are needed for the children of families already here. And we’re becoming increasingly aware of the number of 20 – 34 year olds who are leaving MK to find jobs and houses elsewhere, who don’t come back. It also fits in with Government plans for the future of the Oxford – Cambridge arc, north of London, which is why the Government is funding it so generously.
But the proposed road infrastructure may need revisiting in the light of possibly reduced traffic flows in a new normal after the pandemic and of the Government’s announcement earlier this week of a 78% reduction in our carbon emissions by 2035.
We can see the case for an additional bridge across the M1. Highways England were clear that Junction 14 can’t be expanded much further. But the case for dualling Tongwell Street should be re-visited in the light of the changed circumstances since the traffic flow assumptions were first projected some years ago. And we’re not persuaded by the case for closing the northern leg of Tongwell Street going south which will force some Willen residents to drive through the estate to other exits and require freight traffic from the Tongwell industrial area to drive through the new development to go south.
We have arranged a meeting with the developers at 7 pm on Tuesday 29 June (subject to any outstanding COVID-19 restrictions) at which all these points and many more can be raised.