Unlike some of my local government colleagues I was not a great one for grabbing every opportunity to escape from Knowsley and go off on courses, seminars, and meetings all over the place. I only had two meetings in London during my whole time there and this photo of Piccadilly was taken during one of them. I was due to go to a third meeting in London on October 16th 1987 but the trains didn’t run because the South of England had been devastated by the hurricane overnight.
One course I did go on was a lengthy one – the Advanced Management Development Programme run by INLOGOV at Birmingham university. Great fun and I learned a lot – not just about Local Government and management but also about myself. I cannot recall why I went to Bristol in November 1984 but it may have been an Emergency Planning study of some sort. Whatever the reason I recall wandering up to the Clifton suspension bridge to take this photo.
