Audio recording of Karen Dye (b. 1963), Adrian Webb (b. 1983), Helen Locke (b. 1979), Jane Alexander (b. 1950), Gail Revill (b. 1956), Sheng-Ji Lin (b. 1976) and Stefanie Goedecke (b. 1977)

The interviewees begin by giving brief biographical details including their reasons for and date of joining David Lock Associates. Those who have worked elsewhere highlight the friendliness and approachability of the staff in this small organisation, and others compare the dynamism and challenge of working for David Lock Associates with working for a local authority. They mention the opportunity that David Lock Associates gives you to move on and do different things, develop new skills, including getting sponsored training. The interviewees talk briefly about whether the firm’s location is a deterrent to recruitment but downplay the influence of the MKDC experience on their current master planning. As one of the interviewees is a Finance Officer, there is discussion about tendering for a lower price to get the job, but calculating how much more it will actually cost them to do a decent job. The recession is causing that gap to be examined more closely. Most satisfying jobs – individuals mention creating an animated fly through for a public transport scheme in Lagos, the pleasure of tendering and being involved from the inception of projects, helping people to get documents and tenders out on time, working on driving through planning permission for a housing scheme in Peterborough, getting permission for a new motorcycle track in Milton Keynes and working on the urban extension at Rugby Radio Station. Mention is made of the fact that what makes David Lock Associates different is that they try to respond to each place so each scheme is unique and make the point that David Lock Associates was thinking about sustainability issues before it became general practice in planning. Asked to think of words that describe David Lock Associates they came up with ‘passionate’, ‘talented’, ‘committed to the work’, ‘visionaries’, ‘like a family’. They also talk about the continuity of staff on schemes that is appealing to clients. One interviewee comments that the company’s strengths, the social side and strong working relationships will take them through the recession. Another mentions how good David Lock Associates is coming up with good ideas and holding a client’s hand and convincing them of the value of taking the new path as opposed to the safe one. They also talk about the tension between working for developers who want the best economic return and them wanting to create a high quality environment. They stress that new technology is a means to an end, although clients and the public are expecting and are heavily influenced by sophisticated presentation of plans including computer simulations and fly throughs. Finally they talk about the social side of the company, the days out and trips away, the Christmas Party and agree how important they are in developing working relationships.