My Life 1991 - 2003

We had a second son, James, born 12th of January 1990. My wife stayed at home to look after both boys Andrew 4 and James.

At work I was working in the North East Network Management Centre located in Leeds B Transmission Repeater Station, Burley Road, Leeds opposite Leeds Westgate. My new post responsibilities were liaising with Other Licenced Operators(Administrators) connected with The North East Region. These included Kingston Communications, Cellnet, Vodaphone and Mercury. It was a new post in BT with every Region having a manager. I eventually had 2 Techical Officers working for me, Ian Lindley and Paul Coombs. During this time I became the manager in charge of Private Circuits in Bradford as well. Within BT there was rationalisation ongoing especially Networks with Trunk and Local merging and Network Management Centres(NMC) being formed. Each Zone(Region) had a NMC with field staff supporting them. The North East NMC was located in Netel House, 6 Grace Street, Leeds 2. During my role in the RNMC I used to meet Kingston Communication(Hull) monthly, I met with HQ and Region Interconnect Operations Managers every 2 months at Milton Keynes but after all the HQ posts moved Oswestry. This was the National Network  Management Centre.

My boss Dave Colley moved to a National Support Group in 1993 and I was temporary promoted to be in charge of 5 support managers for Transmission in the North East. One of the posts which I had responsibility was Emley Moor transmission station which connected to Emley Moor TV mast. I went there one afternoon and was took the top. It took 7 minutes to get there because the lift is very slow and can only accommodate 2 people. Eventually Trunk Networks merged with Local Networks through NAIP(Network Administration Implement Plan).

After James was born in January 1990 we went to Fuengirola, Spain. We'd been there 7 times before but this we went into a different block of apartments. It was further out than Los Boliches about 2 miles from the apartments in Los Boliches, La Concha IV. There were older but had 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and bigger lounge plus we got 3 weeks for the price of 2. We stayed there for 2 years but it wasn't advertised anymore.

I went out with different girls especially when I was training in Stone. I used to go to Sammy Bells in Newcastle under Lyme or Night Clubs in Stoke.

In 1992 my eldest son started going to Oulton Rugby League Club because my sisters three boys went there. They trained every Wednesday but Andrew didn't play until 1993 in the second team of under 8s. He enjoyed it but after a year I got fed up with the coach 'Jimmy'. I used to help but it ended up with me and another lads father doing all the hard work and Jimmy taking all the glory. We decided to move Andrew to Shaw Cross Boys Club as it was only just outside Ossett. James started training there when  he was 4. I used to take James and my wife used to take Andrew. At first James played matches on a Sunday and Andrew played on a Saturday. When James was 9 I was asked to help to Under 10's coach at Dewsbury Moor. James knew some of the players and he wanted to move so I agreed. Dewsbury Moor under 10's struggled to get a team but they all tried to play even their parents didn't come to matches.

At work in 1994 when locals merged with trunks we moved into Netel House at the back of the police station. The new management centre was called the Network Operation Unit(NOU) and the field staff were called the Network Field Unit(NFU). I stayed as Interconnect manager taking provision as well as maintenance with my 2 TOs. My manager Dick Thorpe I knew already because he was the MAC manager. He went on temporary to a level 3 post and he asked me to cover his post which I did for 18 months. Under me were 14 managers, 100 technical officers and 5 clerical assistants. After this I moved on to Network Control rota manger were between 5 managers covered 24 hours as the Duty manger. the North East Network Operations Unit was closed but everyone was guaranteed another post. I said I would move to Manchester keeping my role as Rota manager for the North. I managed to keep a Leeds TO to work on my staff. He lived in Morley on the same side of Leeds. We shared the driving daily. For the first 3 years we got travelling expenses. At the end of year 1999 we worked earlies over Xmas and nights over New Year and BT paid us exceptionally At the end January I got over 5K !

In March 2001 it was announced that Manchester was closing leaving Cambridge and Oswestry to cover all of the country. I was offered either to move to Cambridge or work from home as National Transmission Support Manager. I chose to work from home until March 2003 when in the morning I suffered a massive stroke.

Throughout my later years  of management, especially Network Management I built a relationship with the Government, MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. There was a division in BT called NPA7 who dealt with the Duty Managers. This group owned equipment in every DMSU which had facilities to monitor customers lines. If their equipment goes faulty they contact the Duty Manager to get somebody to escort them.

My Life 1980-1990

Holidays we went to Torquay, Seahouses and several times were used my wifes Aunty's caravan in Bridlington. Holidays abroad were Ibiza, Fuengirola, Yugoslavia, when it was run as a communist state, Majorca and  Lanzarote.

In 1985 things really changed my wife became pregnant. We had son, Andrew, who was born 26/01/86. My wife took maternity leave and went back to work but she resigned after the benefits stopped. Our lives changed dramatically by having a son. I remember going to Los Boliches, Fuengirola where we took my wife's aunt because she looked after Andrew when my wife returned to work. After that we went to the same apartments at least once ever year.
In 1990 we had another son, James, born 12/01/90.

At work a computer was installed called MAC, Measurement and Analysis Centre whose purposes was to run throughout Leeds telephone network and to measure the service. I joined the Reference Centre as the main T.O. working the MAC in 1984. In 1988 I had to cover for my manager who's other roles were Cordless Switchboard maintenance and SPC Telex. In 1999 the engineers union POEU(which I was a member) took strike action about the governments role providing a new telecommation operator 'Mercury'. It started with a 1 day strike but BT seeked reassurances that it wouldn't happen again. The engineers refused and everyone took srike action but I, as manager, went back to work. This lasted for about 3 weeks when BT negotiated a return.

I took my board in April 1990 but I was moved into a temporary post on System X(Digital) maintenance. I got my first post as the North East Manager on Interconnect. My headquarters were in Leeds B Transmission Repeater Station opposite Leeds Westgate on Burley Road in the North East Regional Network Management Centre. After 6 months I managed the Private Circuits Maintenance in Bradford. It was a local duty but Trunk Networks staffed it. There were 2 TOs and 1 T2A in the main Exchange in Manchester Road, Bradford. I got an office there as well. The 2 TOs had a bad reputation but after the initial meetings I worked with them to raise the statistic