Interview with John Napleton (part 2)

John talks further about working in Abuja, Nigeria. He returned to MK when Nigeria became an increasingly dangerous place. Back at MKDC, he worked with Allen Duff on the Central Business Exchange (CBX) and Trusthouse Forte hotel. On appointment as Property Management Director in 1983 John had responsibility for all Corporation property, plus arts and leisure, a particular interest of his. He worked closely with artist Edna Read – ‘…there are some wonderful stories about Edna Read’ – and recalls annual art exhibitions, conversion of Westbury Farm into an Arts Centre, development of MK Bowl and the successful concerts. Property projects included widening the H10 road bridge when developing Caldecotte Lake and disposal of asbestos in all 15,000 Corporation houses (managed by Brian Cole). John recalls the fires in Fullers Slade housing (which spread to wooden cladding) as ‘the most unpleasant project I had to deal with’; and he proposed their redesign to EMC. John comments that working with some ‘magnificent’ architects in has enabled him to become a more multi-disciplined person.

From 1988 John was Engineering Director, focussing on infrastructure up to MKDC’s closure in 1992. He says: ‘the Corporation wanted to build as much of the grid road structure as was possible to make sure that, when MKDC closed, the Commission for New Towns (CNT) couldn’t come in and stop building grid roads’. In his opinion, the advance building of grid roads was ‘one of the finest things the Corporation did’ He laments that ‘the people who followed us… abandoned grid roads and started building city streets’. John retained Landscaping in his brief (to implement the Parks Trust), and the arts programme. He talks about his work for Commission for the New Towns (CNT) from 1992, regretting that he authorised the closure of Midsummer Boulevard and that he designed the bus routes around the shopping building. But no-one would bid to extend the shopping building in any other way.