Milton Keynes

At a glance

Type

Unitary authority

ONS code

E06000042

Area

309 km²

Region

South East

Fire and rescue

Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes

Police

Thames Valley

Emergency planning partnership

Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum

Largest built-up areas

Milton Keynes, Bletchley, Newport Pagnell and Olney

Council emergency pages

• Council website milton-keynes.gov.uk
• Current emergencies and severe weather Same page as above.

Councils announce rest centres, road closures and emergency help on these pages and their social media. Find your council by postcode (GOV.UK).

Power cuts

Report a power cut or check one: call 105 free from any phone, or use the operator’s website.

Network operator (not your supplier):

• National Grid Electricity Distribution (East Midlands)

Ofgem’s figures for the whole licence area, April 2024 to March 2025, counting cuts of 3 minutes or longer:

• East Midlands (National Grid Electricity Distribution): 34.3 interruptions per 100 customers and 24.6 minutes without power per customer (2023/24: 44.2 and 26.1)

Great Britain as a whole: 39.7 and 35.1. These are area averages, not figures for Milton Keynes alone. About this dataset

Flooding

Environment Agency: 4 flood alert areas and 14 flood warning areas overlap Milton Keynes. Waters named: Water Eaton Brook, River Great Ouse, River Ouzel, River Tove, Fluvial.

Warning areas include: Area close to the River Great Ouse and River Ouzel at Newport Pagnell; Low lying areas close to the River Great Ouse and River Ouzel at Newport Pagnell; Low lying areas close to the River Great Ouse at Stony Stratford; River Great Ouse and Padbury Brook at Thornton, Beachampton and Passenham; River Great Ouse at New Bradwell and Haversham; River Great Ouse at Olney and Newton Blossomville; River Great Ouse at Turvey; River Ouzel at Bletchley and Caldecotte; and 6 more.

Check for flooding now · Sign up for free flood warnings (GOV.UK). Floodline: 0345 988 1188.

Weather warnings

The Met Office issues yellow, amber and red warnings for rain, wind, snow, ice, fog, thunderstorms and extreme heat. Current Met Office warnings (choose South East on the map) · What the colours mean

Health: NHS help and the nearest A&E

For urgent medical help that is not life-threatening, use NHS 111 online or call 111. Find urgent and emergency care services · Find NHS services near you (NHS website)

The nearest type 1 (major) A&E departments to the centre of each of the largest built-up areas, by straight-line distance (as the crow flies, not by road):

• Milton Keynes: Milton Keynes University Hospital (2.2 km); Bedford Hospital South Wing (22.3 km); Northampton General Hospital (23.6 km).
• Bletchley: Milton Keynes University Hospital (3.8 km); Luton and Dunstable University Hospital (21.1 km).
• Newport Pagnell: Milton Keynes University Hospital (6.3 km); Bedford Hospital South Wing (18.2 km).

We have not found an open official list of urgent treatment centres and minor injury units for England, so they are not shown here.

About this dataset

Never Caught Out is not affiliated with the NHS.

Water supply

Water company for this area:

• Anglian Water · Check on or report an issue

To report no water, low pressure or a burst main, use the company’s page above. Your water bill names your supplier.

Water resource zones covering Milton Keynes: Ruthamford Central (Anglian Water, about 98% of the area); Ruthamford North (Anglian Water, about 2% of the area). What a water resource zone is

What to do when the water goes off

Local risks and emergency planning

• Flooding: 14 flood warning areas and 4 flood alert areas overlap the council area (details above).
• Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum publishes a community risk register: the official list of emergencies that planners prepare for here. The register document.
• Hazards the register names include (our grouping of its wording): Flooding; Cyber attacks; Industrial and chemical accidents; Animal disease; Storms and severe weather; Pandemic; Snow and low temperatures; Telecoms failure; Transport accidents; Heatwaves; Outbreaks of infectious disease; Power cuts; Fuel shortages; Drought; Loss of water supply; Wildfires. Open the register for how likely and how serious each one is judged to be.
• Sandbags and flood help: Flood help and advice | Milton Keynes City Council (the council’s own page; councils differ on whether they supply sandbags, so check what it says).

We list only what official sources say. We do not rate how safe or risky anywhere is.

Map

Phone and broadband coverage

Ofcom’s predictions of normal coverage in Milton Keynes, January 2026. They are not live outages and not a guarantee for any address.

• Homes and businesses with 4G indoors from all four networks: 94%; from none: 0%.
• Outside homes and businesses, 4G from all four networks: 100%; from none: 0%.
• Land area with outdoor 4G from all four networks: 99%; from none: 0%.
• Premises that can get gigabit-capable broadband: 96%.
• Premises that cannot get decent broadband (10 Mbit/s down, 1 Mbit/s up) from a fixed line or fixed wireless: 27 (0%).

Check an address on Ofcom’s coverage checker · Phones when the network is down: how to reach 999 · About this dataset

Local radio

BBC Three Counties Radio

This is the BBC station for the county or area, from the BBC Sounds station list. Coverage overlaps council boundaries, so tune to whichever station you receive.

Census 2021: planning prompts

• Households with no car or van: 17.1%
• Residents aged 65 or over: 13.8%
• Households of one person aged 66 or over: 9.7%

Who would fetch food or medicines for you or a neighbour on icy or flooded roads, and who would you check on in a power cut? Ask your pharmacist about repeat prescriptions before bad weather.

Largest built-up areas

• Milton Keynes
• Bletchley
  • River Ouzel at Bletchley and Caldecotte
• Newport Pagnell
  • Area close to the River Great Ouse and River Ouzel at Newport Pagnell
  • Wider area at risk from the River Great Ouse and River Ouzel at Newport Pagnell
  • Low lying areas close to the River Great Ouse and River Ouzel at Newport Pagnell
• Olney
  • River Great Ouse at Olney and Newton Blossomville

Other built-up areas include Woburn Sands, Hanslope, Lavendon, Sherington, Bow Brickhill and Castlethorpe.

Neighbouring councils

Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, North Northamptonshire, West Northamptonshire

Guides for any emergency

• Power cut: call 105 free. Priority Services Register · Compensation calculator
• Power cuts
• First hour of a power cut
• Flooding
• Flood alerts and warnings
• Storms
• Cold weather
• Grab bag and evacuation
• Emergency Alerts
• A battery or wind-up radio keeps working in a power cut.
• All council pages in England · All UK council pages