Interview with Michael Murray (part 2)

Looking for a vision for the Council led Michael to explore the Master Plan for MK, where he found ‘the seven or eight principles which would guide development of Milton Keynes’. In his opinion, many of those principles have been achieved today; by 2016, the Council has recognised its strategic role and has been adventurous. He quotes the example of the Stadium and MK Dons, which led to MK being a Rugby World Cup venue. He notes that: ‘MK is seen as one of the cities that has helped to lead the country out of the recession’. He discusses the move to unitary authorities and concludes: ‘I think that has been wholly beneficial to the community’. As ‘the Council’s champion’ in promoting recycling, he notes the importance of partnership working with Northampton on this. Michael considers the city is a really great place to live in and bring up a family; in his opinion educational standards need improvement, but the Council has worked hard on this. Good points are redways, bridle ways, and good employment. He is also proud of his involvement in the voluntary sector, which he considers important in Milton Keynes; also ‘the Milton Keynes Community Foundation, which has helped to lead, inspire and fund’ the sector. Major achievements he would like to be remembered for are: continuing the principles of MKDC’s Master Plan; unitary reorganisation; introduction of recycling; the Theatre & Gallery. He retired aged 52 in 1996 and explains his reasons.

Michael sets out the Council’s reasons for opposing the setup of the Parks Trust; but he acknowledges the Trust’s major contribution to the landscape. They discuss the issue of regeneration of early housing, and the cost of infrastructure repair, Michael commenting that the high cost is ‘a price worth paying’. He also says that in his early days at the Council, ‘as Chief Executive … I helped to release the skills of the people there’. There was a virtually unused training budget, so he impressed on the Council the need for training. The first new policy was ‘no smoking …very advanced at the time’. But he says that it had a phenomenal effect on the staff and everybody had to receive the training: ‘ …I’ve never smoked since’.