John Walker, Planning Director and later Deputy General Manager of MKDC 1987-1992

John Walker grew up in Manchester and studied Maths at Liverpool University. Following up a suggestion to try town planning, he applied to Trent Polytechnic for a graduate planning course from 1970 to 1972. He found the subjects new and interesting: ‘…the idea of locations and spaces and how urban areas worked and … the systems approach to planning’. Lee Shostak, in his opinion, was one of the most influential lecturers there. John initially worked at Hartlepool County Borough (later Cleveland County). After that, he and his wife sold up their house and travelled in Asia, with £700 (£2 a day to live on). Trekking across Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India caused an old knee injury to play up and John found walking painful. This, and family health problems, forced their return to the UK in early 1975. It then became obvious John needed a job, and as he says: ‘the only job I knew how to do was Planning’. Graham Tomlinson (ex-Hartlepool colleague, now MKDC), and Lee Shostak agreed to be referees for his job applications. Both suggested he apply to MK, as John was on the verge of accepting a job in Nottingham. He recalls his impressions of MK before interview: ‘I thought ‘where am I?’ I had never seen anywhere like this before’. John was offered a job in the Planning Dept. of MKDC and arrived in March 1975. He notes that at none of the interviews did anyone worry about the risk of him disappearing to travel again – ‘from virtually everyone I had ‘Wow, tell us about your journey’.