Government Policies....

[shao_khan]

Reading the road tax thread got me thinking.

Milton Keynes was designed for the car, it wasnt designed around public transport and to be honest the transport links are pretty poor.

PPG3 encourages builders to have only 1.5 parking spaces per property or less, partly to encourage people not to have cars as they have no where to park them.

So now in Milton Keynes you have new houses being built, but you cant park your car, but you need your car because this is what the town was designed for

I gather from a politician friend of mine that MK has had a bid for funding for tram / rail infrastructure turned down in recent weeks, so what confuses me is - the government builds a town designed for cars, raises taxes on cars and then implements planing law so you can have a parking space, and then raises taxes on cars a little more and thennnnnn to top it off declines to assist said town in improving public transport - it sounds to me like they have a trapped taxable population and the green intentions dont exist Instead we'll have lots of 'poorer' people running cars, avoiding tax and insurance and all parking on the roads so emergency vehicles cannot pass any longer, verges are damaged increasing maintenance costs - it strikes me as a total recipe for disaster. Think there is an end for this or just a downward spiral?

[rhyds]

I really feel for MK-ians sometimes, the whole infrastructure seems to be a 60s nightmare involving aluminium phone lines (that can't support ADSL broadband) and the town has awful M1 connections because the M1 was built a fair while before MK, so all the junctions are designed for a sleepy rural town...

[Golfer]

[ QUOTE ]

Reading the road tax thread got me thinking.

Milton Keynes was designed for the car, it wasnt designed around public transport and to be honest the transport links are pretty poor.

PPG3 encourages builders to have only 1.5 parking spaces per property or less, partly to encourage people not to have cars as they have no where to park them.

So now in Milton Keynes you have new houses being built, but you cant park your car, but you need your car because this is what the town was designed for

I gather from a politician friend of mine that MK has had a bid for funding for tram / rail infrastructure turned down in recent weeks, so what confuses me is - the government builds a town designed for cars, raises taxes on cars and then implements planing law so you can have a parking space, and then raises taxes on cars a little more and thennnnnn to top it off declines to assist said town in improving public transport - it sounds to me like they have a trapped taxable population and the green intentions dont exist Instead we'll have lots of 'poorer' people running cars, avoiding tax and insurance and all parking on the roads so emergency vehicles cannot pass any longer, verges are damaged increasing maintenance costs - it strikes me as a total recipe for disaster. Think there is an end for this or just a downward spiral?

[/ QUOTE ]

Moral of the story, don't buy a home there.

[steelwind101]

Its a real case of goverment needs cash and people or pressue groups want car cuts so what you have is the MK problem.

Its really IMO down to the fact that no one in goverment is strong enough to just make clear cut decision and stand by it. Alot of which i think is brought on by the press who in turn alter public opinion.

I think what has happened is that those who make descisions have come so far away from those who they effect that its just gone wrong.

Of course we couldent possible wipe the slate clear and start again. So the downward spiral will continue.

Often revolutions help to promote change but being at the hight of middle of the roadness right now that probably wont happen any time soon.

The great thing is soon you can vote for Brown or Blair, i mean Cameron....i mean....!!?? Exactly.

Sorry.

Geoff

[DaddyDub]

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I really feel for MK-ians sometimes,

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We like to be called Milton Keynies please

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Moral of the story, don't buy a home there.

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Good luck buying a house here, There aren't enough for the growth of families here now.

[Tizzy]

It's quite fun driving along the H roads there though, nearly all 70mph dual-carriageways, although you've got to be quick on the roundabouts as the locals take no prisoners!

Was there over the weekend visiting friends and helping to lay some additional block paving on the small driveway of their 4 bedroom house so that two cars could be parked side by side! Having a drive round the Kings Mead and Oxley Park areas it's amazing how much housing is going up around there - and the majority of occupiers will be communting outside of MK I'll bet!

Many of the big 4 bed houses now don't even have a single garage let alone a double and the driveways are tiny, where they exist at all, certainly a large car like an A8 would be hanging over the path.

[Golfer]

All these "Newbuilds" have garages that you can't get a real car in, and drives that take one car MAX!!

don't you just love EM

[cruiser647]

[ QUOTE ]

All these "Newbuilds" have garages that you can't get a real car in, and drives that take one car MAX!!

don't you just love EM

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My new build has a garage big enough for my A6. The garage is seperate from the house, (set back in the garden with a car-port under one 'wing') so is bigger. Garages built onto the houses are always smaller.

The people who decide government policy are in committees and live in big houses with everything paid for - so don't think about us - tax paying peasants!