Councillor Shazna Muzammil, Leader of the Conservative Group on Milton Keynes City Council, has raised serious concerns about the £2.19 million Station Square regeneration project after new Freedom of Information (FOI) responses confirmed the full cost breakdown and revealed gaps in long-term planning.
While the Labour administration has said the project was not funded through council tax, Conservative councillors say this risks misleading residents about how public assets are being used.
Milton Keynes Development Partnership (MKDP), which funded the majority of the scheme, is owned by Milton Keynes City Council and manages land and assets belonging to the city.
Residents are already raising concerns about peeling surfaces, potential slip hazards and unresolved infrastructure problems nearby to Station Square only months after completion.
Cllr Muzammil said:
“Residents were told not to worry because this wasn’t taxpayers’ money in a video recently shared by the MK Labour Party. But MKDP is owned by the council. It manages public land and public assets for Milton Keynes.
And this is a lot of money. And when money is spent through MKDP, it is still Milton Keynes money — and residents absolutely have the right to ask questions about how it’s being used.
And after all this money is spent, in less than a few months, you have paint already peeling and going into our drains, surfaces that become a slip hazard when it rains, and potholes which are still there as large as life."
The FOI response confirmed the Station Square works cost approximately £2.19 million, including around £110,000 in design and consultancy fees, £1.86 million in construction and landscaping, and approximately £225,000 for the ‘Walk With Your Dreams’ artwork and artist fees.
£65,000 of Section 106 developer contributions were also used towards the scheme.
She added:
“Nobody is against public art or improving our city centre. We all want Milton Keynes to look good and feel welcoming.
This is a busy transport hub used every day by hundreds of people walking, cycling and using scooters. Painting an outdoor floor area like that without clear long-term maintenance planning was always going to raise questions.”
Freedom of Information responses also confirmed MKDP does not hold a readily available “as-built” summary of completed works and does not have projections comparing expected future maintenance costs against the previous reported annual maintenance spend.
“When millions of pounds are spent, residents quite reasonably expect someone to know exactly what was delivered and what it will cost to maintain,” she said.
“If maintenance costs fall back on the council later, then ultimately residents are the ones paying for those decisions.”
“Every week, residents contact us about potholes, broken streetlights and delayed repairs. People understand investment is important. But they also want confidence that decisions are properly planned and built to last — not creating future costs that our residents end up paying for.”
