Interview with Wayne Perdue part 3: Transport

Wayne discusses further his consultancy MTM’s report recommending car parking charges in CMK. He recalls the transport planners’ struggles in the 1970s and early 1980s to get MKDC to assist public transport. In the later 1980s and 1990s, his influence on transport decisions lessened; they became more about promoting bus flows, and better information systems. He describes the effect of the Transport Act 1985, and discusses MKDC policy to run buses on grid roads. He comments, ‘…in practice you now have got a bit of a mishmash’, with most buses on the grid roads but some areas where they penetrate the grid squares. MTM advised on several expansion studies in the 1990s and 2000s and considered that more radical action was needed on public transport, recommending development on ‘transport corridors’ with park and ride systems; these ideas were not adopted and Wayne criticises transport aspects of the Local Plans for the expansion areas. However, he comments favourably on the new Transport Partnerships report, a long term strategy to 2050 and 500,000 population, saying: ‘this reflects everything that I’ve tried to say’, including a Mass Rapid Transport network. Asked about his views on the use of driverless cars and serviced vehicles like Uber, Wayne doubts that the public will want to move away from private cars. He describes briefly the proposal raised in the 1970s for a heliport in MK, to bring business people there to help sell the city. Of Milton Keynes now, he says: ‘it’s a fantastic place to live, to raise a family, the environment is superb in large proportions of the City… I think the Redway network is absolutely brilliant.’ Personally he is proud of having ‘stuck to my guns …on what I believed would be right for the long term development of MK.’