House developers guilty of '˜travesties' on Milton Keynes landscape says Parks Trust boss

David Foster’s rant came during the annual meeting of the multi-million pound trust.

He said: “In some areas the landscape is being dealt with as an afterthought and this leads to travesties, such as some of the lovely old agricultural hedges in the Western Expansion Area being sold off piecemeal to individual house builders.

“It’s such a shame especially as we have a tried and tested model that has been working well for 25 years.”

Mr Foster also slammed the “unsatisfactory” amount of green space being provided in some of the city’s expansion areas.

But he praised the more environment-conscious developers who involve themselves with the Parks Trust to design and plan new green spaces .

The Parks Trust, which is an independent charity set up to care for Milton Keynes’ parks and green spaces, this month published its annual report and financial statements.

These show the charity has strengthened its financial position, largely due to the success of its £88m commercial property portfolio and its £10m in investment funds.

The Parks Trust’s net asset value grew by £10m to £105m during 2016/17, while it earned £3.2m through the increase in value of its portfolio of commercial properties dotted all around MK.

Mr Foster said: “When looking at our financial performance it is important to remember that we are entirely self-financing and receive no money from the government or council tax; all our work is funded through our commercial property, our investments and various enterprises.