Interview with Kevin Wilson

Appointed as a teacher to Milton Keynes’ Denbigh School in 1975, Kevin was a ‘key worker’ and was offered a choice of 12 houses by MKDC – an unbelievable situation nowadays! He chose a one-story house on Netherfield, about which he comments: ‘ it looked good …a nice little place’, but recalls the ineffective electric ceiling heaters, which ‘had to be ripped out later’. He was surprised that his pay cheques were from Buckinghamshire County Council .Kevin quickly joined the local Labour Party (Watling and Central Branch) to continue his political interests and was elected a councillor in 1978. He describes the Council’s relationship with MKDC and comments on the two different MKDC Board Chairmen. In the 1980s MKDC began privatisation of their assets – for example the shopping centre and landscaping, before close down in 1992. In Kevin’s opinion: ‘The politicians, …changed the arithmetic and left us [the Council] with less’. He notes that the Government agreed to the Council holding the freehold of the open land, with the Parks Trust having a 999-year lease. However, the Council is now responsible for huge maintenance costs of bridges and housing. From 1990 to 1992 Kevin led a Labour-controlled Council, introducing innovations such as recycling. Then came a ‘period of radicalism’ before unitary authority status was awarded in 1996. Kevin comments on significant changes, focussing on integration of children’s services, in which MK was a pioneer. The Council Tax referendum in 1999, gave a positive response for a 10% increase in Council Tax. He talks of allegations of corruption at the Council (1996-2000); the District Audit Service found them to be false. Kevin gives his opinions about public transport; he believes that we need to ‘tame the grid roads’ and tackle congestion.

Considering future growth of the city, and the need for regeneration of seven estates, Kevin says the Council is committed to holding a referendum on each estate. He comments on MKDC’s handover of social housing to the Council to manage, and then, at the behest of Government, taking it back. He comments on proposals for the Food Centre, the Xscape building, and Intu (now Midsummer Place). Kevin says that Fred Roche and Frank Henshaw, General Managers of MKDC, the architects and planners ‘have built something that’s quite special and… renowned throughout the world’. But he dislikes the split between central social housing and private housing on the flanks. He appreciates the diversity of MK; for him, significant milestones are the development of parish councils, the integration of children’s services, and the story of Pete Winkelman and MK Dons. In his opinion: ‘Milton Keynes has got …a lot to live up to and a lot to achieve’.