The Story of Campbell Park Parish Council

21/04/08 — published by Mikki Thomas

Campbell Park Parish Council is made up of grid squares known as Campbell Park, Fishermead, Oldbrook, Newlands, Springfield, Willen, Winterhill and Woolstone.

Campbell Park, Fishermead, Oldbrook, Springfield, Willen and Woolstone are residential.   Winterhill is industrial and Newlands primarily leisure.

Location

Campbell Park Parish Council is located immediately due south of the Milton Keynes City Centre, extending westward to the M1 motorway. A significant part of Milton Keynes was built using near rectangular blocks of development known locally as "grid squares".

Campbell Park Parish Council is the first and most local tier of government for a total of nine grids squares seven of which have been designated as electoral wards. Each ward contains one or two villages, an estate (residential, retail, or leisure), and/or parkland. Only residential areas are entitled to elected councillors, therefore Winterhill and Newlands are not subject to elections.

Campbell Park Parish Council has a diverse cultural and ethnic mix giving it an interesting and varied population.  Campbell Park Parish Council celebrates this diversity with a series of ‘Spotlight' events which bring to a wide audience the cultures of different groups. 

History

When the last major re-organisation of parish and town councils took place in the 1980's Woolstone-cum-Willen Parish Meeting was upgraded to a ten member parish council. This name reflected the names of the areas that were populated in the time of the Domesday Book.

Some years later it was decided that the name no longer reflected the size and location of the parish. Various names were put forward with the final selection of Campbell Park only being decided following protracted discussion.

Two subsequent boundary reviews decided that the increasing population warranted an increase in the number of councillors thus bringing the current total to twenty, who all live or work locally.

The names given to most of the grid squares in the city were decided by consulting two 16th century maps still held in the Bucks County Archives in Aylesbury. The obvious example in this case is Springfield (the field with a spring), streets on Springfield are named after parts of London. Others were named after people or places of significance. Campbell Park was named after Lord Campbell who was prominent in the early development of Milton Keynes. Streets on Newlands are named after explorers of new lands.

The Parish Council aim is to improve the quality of life for all of its residents and build on the wonderful diversity within its Parish boundaries.