Interview with Jock Campbell Part 2

Jock Campbell talks about the difficulty of attracting industrialists to Milton Keynes at first. Very good terms were offered, but he says: ‘the striking rate was about one in a hundred approaches before you got them’. He comments: ‘MK was a marvellous site offering room for expansion and houses for workers. However there was nothing to show, so you had to con people that you were far more confident … than you really were.’ He commends Fred Roche and Alan Ashton for their persistence in attracting companies.

Discussing the city centre shopping building, he recalls that he thought it too large initially; he commends John Lewis’ foresight in coming in right from the start. Businessmen on the MKDC Board were more confident that such a large project would succeed, and his fears were eventually allayed. He says: ‘that day the Queen came was, I think the first time that the people of Milton Keynes had thought that they lived in ‘Milton Keynes’ rather than Bletchley or Wolverton or Woughton.’ He comments on topics such as flat-roof housing and comprehensive education and describes his tactics for working with Government Ministers: ‘I never put myself in the position of letting a Minister say no to me’. In his view, the greatest successes of MK are: ‘it very largely conformed to the plans we conceived for it … eighteen years ago; our industrial record there, and investments have been extremely good; … it’s a town for people.’