Milton Keynes is a city at last - Congratulations to the City of Milton Keynes. We are one of eight new cities announced for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
I love Milton Keynes. To me it has always been a city. The A5 signs say the borough and new city of Milton Keynes. We always say we are ‘going up city’ and you wont ever see one sign that we were ever classed as a town. I was born in London and lived there for the first eight years of my life. Moving to Milton Keynes was strange. It was a lot of fields, but for me they were my adventure. I used to climb on building sites (no health and safety in those days) and look for treasures the machines had dug up (bits of old china mainly). As I grew, so did Milton Keynes. They built the city centre as I started secondary school. We grew together. When The Point was opened as the place to go, I worked in The Club. My history is Milton Keynes’ history.
Don’t get me wrong. I love London. I am proud of having ‘City of Westminster’ on my birth certificate, but I am also proud to live in Milton Keynes. I would not want to live anywhere else. I love the grid system, which makes it so easy to get around quickly. I love that we are always striving to be better. We had a real snow ski slope before almost anywhere else in the country. When the shopping centre first opened it was the largest under covered shopping centre in Europe. Duran Duran did a photo shoot here, Superman IV was filmed here as was Cliff Richard’s Wired For Sound video. Our air is cleaner than London or other big cities, we are easy to get to by rail or road. We attract famous musicians and My Chemical Romance and Placebo are playing here this weekend, joining a fantastic list of talent that have played here in the past, including Michael Jackson. Queen, David Bowie, Robbie Williams, Green Day and Oasis amongst others. Did I mention David Bowie? Yes my hero chose to play here in 1983 and 1990.
Milton Keynes is so much more than concrete cows and roundabouts. We have little robots that deliver our takeaways. We celebrate innovation and are trialing driverless cars. We are proud to live here. We have a heart, and finally, by being granted city status, we are now recognised as a city. I no longer need to cringe when people describe us as a town. I can now categorically tell them they are wrong.
To me Milton Keynes is a great place to live. I do not want to move back to London, no matter how much I love it there. Milton Keynes is my home.
Huge congratulations to Milton Keynes and all who live here. We live in a City!
Congratulations to the City of Milton Keynes!