Interview with Sam Crooks

As a Liberal party Borough councillor in 1980, Sam recalls his first encounters with Fred Roche and discussions on local policy issues. In 1980 Sam was invited by Luing Cowley (Chair) to serve on the Council’s Policy and Resources Committee, giving him a strategic view of main issues for the Council, such as flat-roofed housing and transport. In 1987 discussions began on the future of MKDC and what responsibilities the Borough would take over, leading to their Strategic Plan. Responsibilities were also inherited from the County Council. On education, he is concerned that about 15,000 children are taken out of MK each day to Grammar schools in Bucks or Bedford. As a Trustee of the Parks Trust, Sam thinks it one of the huge successes in Milton Keynes, but notes that the Trust can spend much more per square metre on maintenance than the Council. Sam supports the grid road system and notes that currently the Council are continuing with grid roads in expansion areas.

Sam was in France at the time of MKDC’s handover to the Council in 1992. On his return he noted two significant problems – lack of MKDC Corporation input to develop estates, and the creation of the Council’s Inward Investment Vehicle as proposed in the 1987 Strategic Plan. Sam comments that he would have preferred to have kept MKDC in place for longer and comments that achievement of so much of the Master Plan ‘is the most incredible tribute’ to its founders.; he notes the great respect people had for Jock Campbell. He believes that the Council’s Plan MK process ‘is forcing people to look to the future, taking MK forward to 2050’; in his opinion, the Council is capable of planning the enlargement of the city, but would struggle with the ‘nitty-gritty’ of building. He is proud of MK’s success: ‘I get incredible pride when I hear people say, ‘I come from Milton Keynes’, because they’ve grown up here. He considers that the young should be taught the history of MK: ‘that’s their heritage… Plan MK is their future’.