'Sorry, but they're ugly' is the verdict on latest high rise flats to spring up at Central Milton Keynes

A mew CMK development with the prestigious name of Park Square has been given a firm thumbs down by Milton Keynes residents.

The new flats, in four blocks between three and 12 storeys high, are on the site of the former Wyevale garden centre in Avebury Boulevard, opposite Xscape and next to The Barn Beefeater restaurant.

The site had been vacant ever since the garden centre closed down in 2007 and was formerly a green oasis in the city centre.

Owned by Milton Keynes Development Partnership (MKDP), it was sold to developers and plans were approved by the council to build 330 new apartments.

These are now almost completed and Gavin Thorburn took a photograph of the buildings and posted them on the popular Milton Keynes Past and Present Facebook page this week.

The post prompted dozens of responses – with few of them flattering.

One reader slammed the flats as “reminiscent of brutalist communist architecture of the 50s and 60s” while another quipped: “Looks like Fishermead on steroids.”

Another simply wrote: “Jesus Christ, it’s ugly.”

Other comments included: “This building is awful – another grey concrete eyesore” and “Looks like something out the Scottish Gorbals”.

One reader defended them however, saying: “They look a lot better than the blocks they are building in London. It looks like the blocks are built with bricks, so will be better quality then the overpriced nonsense that many Londoners are being transferred into with no parking.”

The new Park Square development come as thousands of new apartments are springing up all over CMK, some of them as a result of office to housing conversions and many of them in high rise blocks.

King of the high rise will be the ‘MK Gateway’ development – 288 apartments to be built in one massive 27-storey block and four other four-storey buildings at Saxon Court, the city’s former Covid vaccination centre.

Many of the new flats are being built specifically for people to rent rather than buy. And most have minimal parking, with the emphasis on eco-friendly bike hubs.