Interview with Wayne Perdue: part 2

Wayne first discusses the building of Midsummer Place across Midsummer Boulevard and his s recommendation that the buses were retained on the route through Midsummer Boulevard. But his consultancy lost the argument, which he found very disappointing. He then discusses decisions MKDC could have taken to make public transport better. After 1992, Wayne’s consultancy MTM was involved in several transportation studies with Commission for the New Towns (CNT) and later the Council. Wayne says t, at they continually pushed the message that public transport needed help, but the opportunities to do something radical were becoming fewer. MTM recommended in a major report on a transportation study for the Council and CNT, that parking should be charged for, saying ‘…you can effectively ring-fence the money generated out of car parking to improve public transport’. The report as a whole seemed to be pretty well accepted and charges were introduced.

When congestion in MK was being predicted, Wayne emphasised the need to think long-term, but in his opinion the issue was not addressed until 2000. MTM advised the Council that they needed a multi-modal (bus/car) traffic model and they were contracted to produce and run this, with other consultants. But Wayne comments that ‘The British approach to transport planning is really a form of crisis management’; he was not convinced the model was taken seriously.’ Wayne recalls: ‘we never achieved a bus/car modal split above eight to ninety-two’ (the Master Plan aim was twenty/eighty). Involved in a later transport study with Llewellyn Davies, Wayne recalls his minority report, criticising the continuation of the current transport strategy whilst expanding on the east and west flanks; he believed that more radical action was needed, using park and ride sites for traffic from outside the MK designated area.