John Napleton, Property Management Director 1983-1987 and Infrastructure & Engineering Diecrtor 1987-1992

John was born in Portsmouth. He attributes his building career to spending a lot of time aged 5 or 6, watching builders rebuild the bomb-damaged city. After Grammar School he took an apprenticeship, with the city engineer of Portsmouth, learning everything about managing a city, from digging sewers and tram tracks, laying kerbs, housing and buildings (including the Isle of Wight ferry terminal). At 20 he moved to Fareham Urban District Council to complete an HNC in Civil Engineering. There he joined the department building roads leading to new developments. At Oxford County Council he became Senior Road Engineer: he oversaw maintenance of the county roads, like the A420 and A418 in the respected highway engineering group. This included various bypass designs and improvements to the A421 between Oxford and Napleton and Swindon. But public enquiries and objections made the job increasingly difficult