Why Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, is one of the best places to live 2024

I know! You read correctly: Milton Keynes. In the popular imagination MK is frozen in 1970s aspic, mocked for its US-style grid network, concrete cows and monstrous carbuncularity: even Eastenders got in on the act this month, depicting Bianca’s new home as a deprived urban wasteland (though the scenes were shot in Barnet, north London — are they having a giraffe?). Yet this new town turned city has swathes of parkland, contemplative canal walks and oodles of traffic-free strolling and cycling on the Redways. Campbell Park, with its art trail, towpath walk, manicured cricket pitch and resident flock of sheep, is one link in a daisy chain of green spaces that wrap around rivers, canals, lakes and, of course, a road network peppered with more