The town centre of Milton Keynes is dominated by two large shopping centres which contain the majority of the retail offer. English Partnerships has developed a development framework to extend the town centre into the wider area.
Lend Lease Europe have proposed changes to the centre and developed an Asset Enhancement Mastervision. However, to gain planning consent, evidence was required on how changes to the internal layout of the shopping centre would affect both movement and space use by shoppers and residents of the city.
To answer these questions ISP provided evidence on:

• The level of use of each of the entrances to the shopping centre to identify which were the most heavily trafficked.
• The level of use of routes within the shopping centre.
• ISP provided a predictive model of the likely flows of shoppers with the planned changes to the centre .
• ISP modelled how well the current centre connected to the town centre and provided a predictive model on how the connections were likely to change in the mastervision.
• The journey distances between key destinations both in the current shopping centre and with the proposed changes. This was to identify the potential impact on the centre for residents.
This evidence supported the resolution to grant outline planning consent approved in March 2003. Detailed design work will start in 2005.