Milton Keynes Development Corporation

Milton Keynes Development Corporation was established on 23 January 1967 to provide the vision and execution of a "new city", Milton Keynes, that would be the modern interpretation of the Garden city movement concepts first expressed by Ebenezer Howard 60 years earlier.

Situated in the north of Buckinghamshire near the borders with Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire, it would be a "city in the trees" – the planning guideline was "no building higher than the highest tree", at a time when multi-storey flats and office blocks were dominating the redevelopment of most inner city areas and many large towns, as well as new housing estates.

The aims that MKDC set out in "The Plan for Milton Keynes" implied that the designers would learn from the mistakes made in the earlier new towns and build a city that people would be proud to call their home. On that date, the area within the designated area was home to some 40,000 people in the existing towns and villages. It was placed where it would have a direct road (the M1) and rail link (the West Coast Main Line) with the English capital city, London, and the second city Birmingham; both 50–60 miles away.

Following publication of the Draft Master Plan for Milton Keynes, the government appointed Lord Campbell of Eskan ("Jock" Campbell) to chair the board of the new Development Corporation. For the critical local consultation period, Walter Ismay became the Corporation's first Chief Executive. He added Richard Llewellyn Davies, Walter Bor and John de Monchaux, who produced the overall development plan, with its grid pattern of distributor roads at roughly 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) intervals. When the planning enquiries were over, it was time for a different type of CEO and Fred Roche took over in 1970. Lord Campbell was succeeded by Sir Henry Chilver in 1983.

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