Best New Towns

[trickstat]

I think one difference with Peterborough is that it does seem to have a lot more through traffic than any of the other places that have ever been officially designated as New Towns. I'm not saying that the others don't have through traffic, for example, a journey between Chelmsford and Buckingham could be done by passing through Harlow, Stevenage and Milton Keynes, but it does appear that there are many journeys where it is difficult to avoid Peterborough.

Peterborough was a major transport nexus long before it was a New Town, What is now Water Newton on the A1 was the Roman garrison town of Durobrivae on Ermine Street. Peterborough was a strategic target for both the Royalists and Parliamentarians during the civil war. It got a huge boost with the arrival of the railways with the local clay being used for brick making later joined by manufacturers of machinery and engines such as Peter Brotherhood and Perkins. The railways allowed these products to distributed by rail and later the A1/A15 by road.

Apparently the East Coast Main Line was originally intended to follow the Great North Road and go through Stamford. However, the then owner of Burghley House (the Marquess of Exeter?) was very much opposed, so it went through Peterborough instead.

[KeithW]

Apparently the East Coast Main Line was originally intended to follow the Great North Road and go through Stamford. However, the then owner of Burghley House (the Marquess of Exeter?) was very much opposed, so it went through Peterborough instead.

Well as I understand it there were rival lines from London to the North. Stamford Railway Station opened in 1846 as part of the Midland Railway line between Peterborough and Syston

Peterborough station was opened by the GNR in 1845.

[Chris Bertram]

Apparently the East Coast Main Line was originally intended to follow the Great North Road and go through Stamford. However, the then owner of Burghley House (the Marquess of Exeter?) was very much opposed, so it went through Peterborough instead.

Burghley was then, and remains today, the family seat of the Marquesses of Exeter.

[BF2142]

Visited MK for the third time recently. It’s a very green city, trees everywhere.

The central MK road grid is all DC so no bottlenecks. I didn’t see any congestion around Centre MK on the Saturday morning. The pedestrian underpasses are wide and well-used.

My main take-always are that planned cities work, that people do like living in modern cities and that you cannot avoid making good provision for private transport, be it a car or horse and cart. MK looks like a best practice example to me.

[Bryn666]

MK is the most successful new town because despite the low density, it is not designed around mass car ownership. Having a car helps but it's still feasible to cycle and walk around MK using the Redway network.

Contrast with the new bits that English Partnerships have created which are riddled with street conflicts by turning a grid road into a high street. The exact thing we argue against, bringing high volumes of traffic to where pedestrians want to be.

Places like Skelmersdale on the other hand are dire car dependent messes that are uninspiring, impossible to navigate, and generally represent the worst of car centric planning.

[PaulLothian]

Livingston (which I have driven around for about 45 years) started promisingly, but lost its way quite soon. The distinction between through and local distributor routes became blurred, and for many years, Livingston has been an impediment to through trips other than along the M8!