Remembering when Milton Keynes was described as the Muhammed Ali of new towns

Love it or loathe it Milton Keynes has always boxed clever having once been described as the Muhammed Ali of new towns.

Author Colin Ward visited Milton Keynes as part of a BBC documentary, New Town Home Town, in the early 80s focusing on new towns and how the new city offered all things to all people. He says of all the 32 new towns built since the war Milton Keynes pushed the idea of a new town to its ultimate limits, 'the Muhammed Ali of new towns, brash and over confident in its claims for its own future.'

The documentary describes how those moving to Milton Keynes thought they were moving to the country and it certainly felt like it for those who had left the busy boroughs of London to start a new life here in leafy Buckinghamshire.

But little did those new city dwellers realise they were contributing to future plans to help save the planet thanks to early incentives to buy/rent property in Milton Keynes which included a £3.50 tree voucher. The vouchers were 'accepted at all garden centres for the purchase of one tree, suitable for all size of garden'.

Those purchases meant thousands of trees were planted - adding to the now estimated 22 million trees which complement Milton Keynes' vast green spaces with plans to plant another million to support the environment and help combat global warming.