Interview with David Lock - part 1

David recalls the Labour Government’s developing negative attitude to the New Towns in the late 1970s. In 1977, having decided to move from Kent to progress his career, he was shown around MK by Lee Shostak, and was impressed: ‘I had never seen before such fantastic modernity in the English landscape’. He joined MKDC’s Planning Department (then headed by Lee) in January 1978 and recalls attending his first Executive Management Committee (EMC); Derek Walker’s departure from MKDC was agreed. Planning Department dealt with strategic planning and sequencing of development, and David liaised with Implementation Teams across MKDC. He wrote speeches and reports for Fred Roche and Don Ritson and produced ‘The CMK Review’, reporting on Central MK progress, raising the issue of CMK’s connectivity to central housing. David claims some credit for getting the Homeworld exhibition of show homes started: a project implemented by David Crewe. In his opinion, EMC did not treat Social Development Department and its Director Peter Waterman well: that Department’s activities were undervalued. They discuss the difficulty of making decisions on issues like education and health which are per capita funded by outside organizations; the same applies in MK today.

David discusses the main problem in ‘The CMK Review’, initiation of a market for offices in CMK. Early buildings were Saxon Court and Sentry house (built by MKDC) and two private Midsummer Boulevard plots. David became Project Coordinator for the Central Business Exchange (CBX) project, with designers led by Stuart Mosscrop (the ‘hole in the wall gang’), working in an Oldbrook house. After visits to various USA office developments, they produced reports on ‘The Office of the Future’, concluding they should: ‘target a mixed-use development with small office lets’ and plenty of communal spaces. He describes the model of the original design by Stuart’s team, which covered 8 blocklets in CMK, including Winter Garden and open-air garden. The design was presented to EMC and the MKDC Board, and the team sought project funding. However, at this time, Fred Roche left MKDC and into partnership with Terence Conran to form Conran Roche; a number of staff left with him, the CBX team changed, and the final design was done by PDD (MKDC’s privatised company). David left MKDC in 1983, so was not involved in the completion of CBX