Interview with Allen Duff part 3

Allen heard from Jock Campbell that Michael Heseltine, Secretary for the Environment in the Thatcher government, intended to wind up new town development corporations. He decided: ‘the only reasonable alternative for me was to set up on my own’ and left MKDC in 1983. He had found working with Alan Ashton: ‘an extraordinary experience’, they had got on very well. Allen credits him for his skill putting together commercial appraisals for submission to Whitehall for funding. When Allen was Commercial Director of MKDC, the plans for CMK Railway station were produced, including three office buildings to create Station Square, accommodating the station in one building. Facing a refusal from British Rail, Jock Campbell invited Allen to lunch with Sir Peter Parker; Allen was asked to describe how essential commercially a station was for CMK. A few weeks later, British Rail changed their minds and agreed.

Allen talks of funding the office buildings in Station Square; he remembers various companies moving to MK in the early days, like Scicon with their request in 1970/71 for a computer centre with atmospheric control. He recalls pressure at that time for businesses to relocate: Volkswagen, Legal & General and the Tesco warehouse moved their offices to MK. He describes the sequence of buildings in CMK from Lloyds Court onwards and also discusses leisure development, including The Point and Multiplex Cinema. The Point was iconic in its day, Allen says: ‘Milton Keynes was a trailblazer in that regard, thanks to Bob Hill’. They discuss two ultimately unsuccessful projects – The Food Centre, and the bus station in Station Square. Then came CBX, to cope with the shortage of office space. Allen says: ‘Ken Baker came up with a design …The Shell pension fund provided £45million …It was the last job I did before I left the Corporation’. Asked what he is most proud of, Allen says: ‘I’m enormously proud of the whole place. I feel … gratitude at being involved and … I suppose the shopping building … a little bit of that was mine.’ In his opinion: ‘I think we owe just about everything to Lord Campbell … Fred Roche… and Frank Henshaw.’