Milton Keynes: New City Plan

In a move designed to shape the future of Milton Keynes, the New City Plan prioritised public participation to ensure a thriving and sustainable city for all. With a projected population of 400,000 by 2050 it was important to them to engage young people - that's where Commonplace came in! 

• Launch date: 20 November 2023
• Visitors total: 7773+
• Contributions: 1571

Milton Keynes has a bold vision of becoming a thriving city by 2050. Their ambitious New City Plan prioritises inclusive engagement, aiming to hear from everyone, especially those traditionally underrepresented in local planning. This includes young people and ethnic minorities, whose voices are valuable in shaping the future of where they'll live, work, and play.  Understanding the value of youth participation, Milton Keynes embraced digital engagement strategies.

The plan was broken down into four themes: 

• Thriving City Centre: Strengthen Milton Keynes' position economically by revitalising the city centre and developing a vibrant cultural scene.
• High-quality homes and neighbourhoods: Provide affordable housing to attract buyers in the city.
• Healthy community: Promote physical activity and healthy living through safe, walkable neighbourhoods.
• Climate action: Positive environmental changes through sustainable development and clean transportation.

To engage young people and gather rich engagement, let's take a look at how Milton Keynes used Commonplace as a part of the New City Plan to help them achieve this goal.

Project page

Milton Keynes' project page successfully reflected their unique identity. By incorporating their signature colours and local pictures, they created a visually appealing and relatable platform for resident engagement. The page took advantage of our tiles to create 'snackable' information, using 6 tiles to break down their surveys and information content making it user friendly.

The council also effectively outlined a detailed timeline to keep residents informed and involved in the process. The engagement process for this project kicked off with a scoping stage. This involved a public consultation focused on the project's ambitions and objectives, with an emphasis on assessing its long-term sustainability. Once that was completed Milton Keynes then began the carbon and climate study consultation which asked residents on how climate change could be tackled in the plan. To actively involve residents in shaping the city's future, Milton Keynes launched a multifaceted engagement campaign: workshops and focus groups and digital online surveys.The clear timeline keeps residents informed and engaged throughout the process. Following the feedback loop, it outlines the next steps, including drafting the New City Plan, submission, and examination.

Heatmap

They also took advantage of our famous heatmaps used to ‘have your say about Milton Keynes’. Detailed in a tile, visitors to the site were encouraged to place a pin in the area and answer a few questions about where they had placed the pin. The map would then reflect the responses and visually represent sentiment, allowing them to see areas where residents have negative or positive feelings.

The heatmap provided the council with a powerful tool to pinpoint areas needing development, ensuring alignment with their New City Plan.

Young people plan

“We had the desire to engage young people and recognised their views typically weren’t well represented in local plan surveys, so we made use of young people we already were connected with.” - Nouvella Kusi: Planning Policy Officer, Milton Keynes City Council

Milton Keynes demonstrated a strong commitment to youth engagement by placing it at the heart of their strategy. To go about youth engagement they implemented several methods: 

• They ensured their planning surveys were accessible, Milton Keynes Council's planning department consulted students from their 'Explore' program, a week-long initiative that introduces students to the world of planning.
• They empowered their already engaged Youth Council of 11-18 year olds by giving them the opportunity to be ‘local plan ambassadors’ to ultimately encourage others.
• They also had incentives to boost engagement on their surveys offering those the chance to win one of two small prizes if they completed the survey.
  Of the 2094 visitors that engaged with the project, 54% were from the youth council!

Power of social media

Social media was also used to boost engagement and reach a wider audience. Milton Keynes saw great success with their paid social media campaigns which achieved them:

• 4000+ advertisement clicks
• 550+ contributions
• 392,000 impressions 

With 84% alignment to ONS data, the project's demographics are very representative of the area as a result of the social media outreach.

Where are they now?

Milton Keynes benefited greatly from using digital engagement tools as part of their consultation. Their New City Plan is currently in the phase of publishing the Regulation 18 version of the plan for consultation. They plan on holding public exhibitions and publicising the data collected. By closing the feedback loop, participants gain valuable insight into how their suggestions are shaping the project.

Check out the full engagement website here!

If you'd like to hear more about Local Plans or want to discuss your own plan, book a session with our engagement experts below!