The Digital Planning Journey of Milton Keynes City Council, 1–2pm, 13th November 2025

Register using this link

Milton Keynes as a place has positioned itself as a Smart City and test bed for innovation. The Planning Service at the City Council has taken this as both inspiration and expectation to similarly position itself in the digitalising planning agenda.

The one-hour session will begin with an introductory presentation from MHCLG Open Digital Planning, and their current work on an emerging definition of a ‘Modern Planning Service’.

The remainder of the session will showcase how Milton Keynes City Council has engaged with the MHCLG Digital Planning Programme, particularly how it has responded to the challenge of digitalising development management, plan-making, monitoring, and a range of other related services.

Agenda Outline:

13:00-13:03     Welcome and Introduction: Dr Wei Yang OBE, CEO, Digital Task Force for Planning

Presentations:

13:03-13:13     Matt Wood-Hill, Service Owner,  Open Digital Planning, MHCLG

Open Digital Planning

13:13-13:30     Sarah Evans, Planning Projects and Services Manager, Milton Keynes City Council

The lifecycle of the BESS project – a project to replace MKCC back-office built environment systems – sharing successes, lessons learned and ongoing challenges for the future.

13:30-13:45    James Williamson, Implementation and Monitoring Team Leader, Milton Keynes City Council

The digitalisation of MKCC’s site assessment work for the emerging Local Plan, the piloting of the Arcus monitoring module, and how digitalising Section 106 processes helps with programming spend.

13:45-13:55    Jacob Wilkins, Graduate Town Planner and Digital Lead, Milton Keynes City Council

MKCC’s participation in the MHCLG Open Digital Planning programme, and what is happening now and next as part of its Digital Action Plan.

13:55-14:00   Concluding Remarks and Future Activities

The space is limited, please register soon. We look forward to welcoming you online.