Sir Neil Shields

Died in 2002.

"Many of the authorities with whom he had to deal were Socialist-controlled, and they were aware that Shields had strong links with the Conservative Party (he was also a council member of the Right-wing organisation Aims of Industry). After one meeting with a particularly suspicious Left-wing council, however, its leader turned to Shields and remarked: "You and I are going to get on, comrade, aren't we?"

"Meanwhile, Shields said, the problem was attracting companies to new towns in the North and Midlands - "People are queueing up to go to Crawley", he remarked. He therefore set about marketing new town properties to overseas companies. In particular, he tried to attract interest from North America and Japan.

"At the same time as he was running the CNT, Shields was on the board of London Transport, serving from 1986 to 1993. For nearly six months (1988-89) he was its interim chairman, succeeding Sir Keith Bright who had resigned from the post following the Fennell report into the King's Cross fire in which 31 people died." [1]