Interview with Roger Else (b.1942).
Roger Else moved to Milton Keynes to work as a Community Development Officer for the Milton Keynes Development Corporation; he was initially responsible for working with existing residents in the northern part of the designated area, helping them to come to terms with the arrival of the new town and organising public meetings to discuss proposals for redevelopment. He recalls the power of ‘people’s protest’ to persuade MKDC to change plans. He discusses other aspects of his job, and the gradual development of the team of Community Development Officers and Arrivals Workers. After four years, he moved into the Social Development Department at Wavendon Tower; he comments that the work then became more bureaucratic and less enjoyable. He took voluntary redundancy in 1983.
Discussing the development of MK, he mentions topics such as local centre facilities, infrastructure, transport, the lack of a hospital and education. What symbolises MK to him is: ‘the feeling of space it gives and a sort of urban living in the countryside to me.’
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