The Parks Trust

The trust was established with an endowment of commercial property — office blocks, industrial units, a marina, and farmland — alongside the parks themselves. Rental income from properties like Warren Park, Shenley Pavilions, and Campbell Wharf Marina covers all operational costs for maintaining open spaces. A managed investment fund portfolio provides additional financial liquidity. The structure was created at the dissolution of the Milton Keynes Development Corporation to ensure the green infrastructure would never compete with schools or social services for council funding.

The Parks Trust is an independent charitable company limited by guarantee. The City Council nominates three trustees to the board, but the trust is not a council department and receives no council funding. The founding agreement ensured arm's-length operations — the trust manages the land, generates its own income, and makes autonomous decisions about park maintenance and commercial holdings, with the council's role limited to strategic partnership on green infrastructure policy.

Yes. The trust holds managed investment funds with a global mandate, providing diversification beyond its core Milton Keynes property portfolio. These funds serve as a liquidity buffer and capital reserve. The trust does not engage in venture capital or direct private equity, focusing instead on pooled fund structures that align with a long-term, income-oriented endowment strategy.

The trust owns and manages roughly 5,000 acres — a linear park system that runs the full length of Milton Keynes. This includes formal parks, ancient woodlands, lakes, playing fields, and road verges. The land was transferred from the Milton Keynes Development Corporation at its dissolution in 1992, with restrictive covenants ensuring permanent public access and prohibiting development on the green spaces.

Known properties include office parks at Warren Park, Shenley Pavilions, and Radian Court in Knowlhill; industrial units at Manor Farm Court in Old Wolverton; the mixed-use Drakes Mews and Campbell Park Pavilion; and the Campbell Wharf Marina, which is accredited with 5 Gold Anchors by The Yacht Harbour Association and holds a Clean Marina designation. The trust also operates a farming and livestock enterprise and a timber business.

Victoria Miles MBE has served as Chief Executive since the trust's founding in 1992. Nick Lloyd chairs the Board of Trustees and is also Chairman at EMW Law. Chris Bridgman MBE serves as Vice Chair and is a Partner at Bridgman & Bridgman, a specialist green roofing contractor. The board includes additional trustees, with three nominated by Milton Keynes City Council.

It operates as both — by design. The trust is an endowment-holding charity that must generate commercial income to fund conservation work. The 1992 founding structure deliberately paired the parks with revenue properties so that the charity could be self-sufficient. Every pound of rent from an office block or industrial unit goes to maintaining the public green spaces that residents use free of charge.