1968: How COMPULSORY PURCHASE reshaped a TOWN | Man Alive | Voice of the People | BBC Archive

[@Budbrothers420]

That danny was preaching the truth more so now then ever what a lad

[@theeggtimertictic1136]

He mentioned the book '1984' ... just think 1984 was the future back then!

[@suitcase_carwash]

I reckon Danny would only get a 30 second sound bite on any BBC piece these days

[@hilaryepstein6013]

I felt so sorry for that couple. They put everything into their home only to have it snatched from them. The move from terrace to tower block broke up not only families but whole communities.

[@JJONNYREPP]

1968: How COMPULSORY PURCHASE reshaped a TOWN | Man Alive | Voice of the People | BBC Archive 0929am 8.6.24 narrator sounded like Vyvian Stanshall.

[@growlerthe2nd712]

@@JJONNYREPPAnd now back to the Earl Court Olympia for the shirt event, I’ll repeat that the shirt event ……..😂👍

[@allykhan8594]

Tyranny of gvernment.

[@jow6845]

💯👎🏻

[@JJONNYREPP]

@@jow6845

[@babs675]

This happened to our house, in Salford. My uncle had the house before my mum. He was a lovely carpenter. He even built an add-on, in the backyard for a kitchen. The house was in great shape, as was the rest of our neighbour’s homes, but the council decided to take over and pull them down. My Poor widowed 70 year old mum was devastated and out a lot of money, with the pittance the council gave her. She ( scared stiff of heights) was sent to a high rise flat. 13 th floor, where the lift was out of order just about every day. It was an absolute disgrace that her home could just be taken off her, like it was.

[@-_-11k52]

Yes completely wrong. Council should have had to pay through the nose! Daylight robbery!

[@theeggtimertictic1136]

Put into a shoebox in the sky ... the poor woman 🥺

[@rensha8635]

At her age, a high rise flat, what a disgrace. Your poor mother.

[@SpeccyHorace]

Bloody awful.

[@michaelroberts7374]

Same here, in Salford, mam and gran and me moved to 11th floor tower block in 1970. Gran had had a stroke, and only left the flat a handful of times before she died in 1980

[@tjm3900]

These people suffered and fought through a war. Only to be treated like this.

[@JohnSmith-ei2pz]

That's councils wanting land to house immigrants!

[@siwynjones]

@@JohnSmith-ei2pzThey fought through a war, and it was people like you they were fighting.

[@JohnSmith-ei2pz]

@@siwynjones You could not fight yourself out of a wet paperbag! Racist!

[@Lav9944]

​​@@siwynjonesYou've got it completely backwards 🤦‍♂️ We fought to protect our country and to keep it english, we fought against a group of people who wanted flood other countries with there own people and eventually replace the indigenous people. Ever heard of living space or the final solution? I find it funny how it's wrong when the Germans do it but everyone else gets a pass.

[@daydays12]

@@JohnSmith-ei2pz oh , really come on 😞 it has nothing to do with it it is about re-housing mistakenly making life "better" for people

[@heinkle1]

Oldham shows up quite a lot on this channel. A place that has experienced a lot of change over the decades.

[@sutapasbhattacharya9471]

One of its Labour MPs Michael Meacher wrote that property should be for housing people but ended up as Environment Minister [don't be wasteful] owning a portfolio of about a dozen properties and leaving millions in his will.

[@Bookmarkerer]

Time travelling back to 1968; thanks BBC Archive; and a good day to all of you in the present.

[@bowwowrapha7790]

Danny is fantastic. I really feel for him.

[@bill3641]

@4:30 He's described so well what happens at city council and school board meetings today. Thats not much in the way of progress....

[@grinsko6741]

“The little bell only goes ‘ping’ “.

[@googlesucks6029]

I hope everything turned out ok for the shopkeeper. He had some good points though which are still valid today.

[@kieronparr3403]

The tailor?

[@theeggtimertictic1136]

@@kieronparr3403 Did he make the suits? .. I think he just bought them to sell

[@kieronparr3403]

@@theeggtimertictic1136 nah you can see his fabric, tools etc

[@astalavista_84]

People actually made stuff in this country back then, rather than importing it from sweatshops in Asia

[@johnmartinez7440]

​@@astalavista_84 People still do.

[@johnwhitehead1305]

Watching these films makes me cry, all those communities and hard working, decent people like Danny swept aside without any proper representation in the name of "progress ".

[@daydays12]

I agree with you. My heart goes out to those honest folks.

[@ProserpinePomegranate]

Agree. In the name of Progress,what Progress? Absolute disgrace!

[@alibali2656]

There is another documentary uploaded on KZbin about the same destructive event on St Mary's, Oldham called The end of a Street, Coronation Street. Really interesting insight into the superior views of the council and developers over the lives of genuinely hard working folk.

[@jazztheglass6139]

Now PFI Schools, hospitals etc are all built through the compulsory purchase system. Planning permission is granted through central goverment automatically. Local authority is by-passed completely, local residents concerns and objections are ignored. I experienced this first hand in Wembley Park 20 years ago. A Academy school was built on TFL land, my leased 3 bed cottage and a sports ground was demolished despite strong local opposition. The company involved in the project got a 30 year contract for construction, maintance and servicing of the school. Over the 30 year period the fees paid were massive. The school is also exempt from local authority control

[@daydays12]

well written thank you

[@jazztheglass6139]

@samuelsstuffyt Give it time. If Labour puts its full weight behind PFI housing and other infrastructure. It will affect middle class areas. Cricket and tennis club grounds, sports fields, Church halls etc. The land is too valuable, the profits are vast. The government can say its built developments and bought it on hire purchase, so to speak. My old cottage in Wembley, was on the edge of Wembley, almost a middle class area.

[@cb01ttr]

I wouldn't mess with Danny.

[@skyrocketautomotive]

Yeah, totally agree. An old school kinda guy. But an honest and hardworking one it would seem. I really hope things worked out for him wherever he ended up.

[@cb01ttr]

@@skyrocketautomotive Definitely not afraid of a day's work.

[@factoryfactory7142]

Nae! Nae! Nae!

[@TeddyBoy1962]

This happened to family friends in the mid sixties in Bow, London. The entire street of Victorian terraced houses were compulsorily purchased and demolished. The Lovering family had one of the cleanest, soundest, neatest houses in the street. Jim was retired and spent time freshening up the exterior paintwork and Gertrude was an excellent homemaker. Many of the other houses were run down although not slummy. However, every house owner got what they were given - three hundred quid, regardless of condition. They were then moved to Loughton - to a council house. From hardworking, fiscally proficient, working class homeowners to rent paying council tenants. No choice given.

[@WillScarlet1991]

That was disgusting 😠😢

[@daydays12]

Callous, ignorant , possibly corrupt, 'planners' with their idiotic ideas

[@EdsCafe]

Heartbreaking. These wonderful people treated like s***e.

[@daydays12]

I so agree

[@ichibanmanekineko]

That is literally the history of England since 1066, maybe before. The haves treat all of the have nots like s41t

[@Tiggy808]

Remember my great grandma had a house on Middleton Rd in chadderton, was compulsory purchased at a 'knock down' price about 1981, new houses sprang up and she moved to a flat in Rhodes. They can wreck your life at the stroke of a pen.

[@whiteonggoy7009]

So sad especially those having gone through war then new start taken away

[@JohnHMarsden]

Great people from Oldham.

[@zippy963]

Wise woman.

[@chrisdstard5644]

This happened in Penzance. Heamoor used to be beautiful, now it's a grotty estate full of pikeys, my grandparents house and land devastated.

[@stephenholmes1036]

Im from Cape Cornwall and your spot on.

[@daydays12]

In my town of origin Plymouth... the houses that survived the blitz were bulldozed by the horrible motor obsessed American style planners and the people pushed out onto wind swept isolated 'estates' .... Horrible.

[@faithlesshound5621]

A rare sighting of the P word! Racism lives on in genteel county towns long after the rest of us have grown up.

[@theeggtimertictic1136]

I wonder what became of Danny and his business?

[@art-fw7ci]

I'm not british, in 1968 my father hadn't been born yet, but the story of that lady brought some tears to my eyes.

[@magravy1]

Real working people being crushed then and it still continues today 😢

[@pen2199]

English people are been irradiated

[@WilliamSmith-mx6ze]

Crushed? Uh?

[@magravy1]

@@WilliamSmith-mx6ze Hopes and dreams The cost of living!

[@stephenholmes1036]

Labour councils were the worsed

[@MrACOUSTICPETE]

Opportunity for a an investigative journalist to see who was making money from this scheme and how they influenced the decision making ! Like the Ernest Marples scandal which led to lots of motorways and the destruction of the rail network by Beeching !

[@daydays12]

Oh yes the odious corrupt Marples destroying the railways and profiting from motorways.

[@benohanlon]

Tell me more?

[@Leonie-h2e]

How do you think Rf. Ade their money in guise of companies

[@faithlesshound5621]

Before the motorways were built, main roads went through every town and village and driving across country meant going down every High Street and across every market square. By that time city traffic was nose-to-tail. The road haulage lobby got the weight limits for lorries progressively increased too. That replaced a lot of rail traffic. Imagine if all of that was trundling past your front door day and night, instead of fenced off on the motorways!

[@benohanlon]

@@faithlesshound5621 interesting. Thank you.

[@stephenholmes1036]

People still treated like rubbish by local authorities.

[@daydays12]

and by central government

[@DOCTORWHOcentral]

@4:48Since his talking in 1968 he mentioned 1984 like his living in that era ???? Did anyone else find that weird and scary cause his mentioned the future 😮😮

[@RobertMulhern]

I guess he was on about Orwell’s book 1984

[@davidlee6720]

he was intelligent and had probably read his Orwell.

[@adzharrold5952]

Have you ever heard of Orwell

[@thomassmiththekingbee]

Danny is really well spoken, and every word he said is true

[@ChromosomeSyndicate]

And there are still believers in rich criminals 😢

[@richardjames3356]

Just under a month, we get to vote for them.

[@AnthonyMonaghan]

Nothing has changed...if anything, things have got worse. What a shameless bunch of criminals.

[@JJONNYREPP]

1968: How COMPULSORY PURCHASE reshaped a TOWN | Man Alive | Voice of the People | BBC Archive 0932am 8.6.24 then everyone who watches this goes off to watch Little Malcolm and his struggle against the proletarian eunuchry...

[@daydays12]

Agree 100%

[@JJONNYREPP]

@@daydays12 1968: How COMPULSORY PURCHASE reshaped a TOWN | Man Alive | Voice of the People | BBC Archive 23.6.24 when i was a lad......

[@yammyrob]

Good ol danny. What a great man.

[@jillrossiter8757]

The lady in the house that was grabbed says it so well.She is right ---the little bell and the big bell

[@andscholovideos312]

I love the way they speak. Proper Oldhamers.

[@faithlesshound5621]

I wonder ... I think they would have code-switched their accents and vocabulary somewhat for the TV, after the BBC's make-up girl had powdered their noses so as not to reflect the lighting.

[@timhill8941]

This subject was tackled in the "Till death us do part" film (about 1968 , I think ) , when Alf Garnett has his home taken from him I'd recommend a watch

[@QuoPaperPlane]

Excellent spin off of the series. Although that scene is comedy gold, it's also tragic, mirroring real life situations. That surveyor is the same actor from Are You Being Served, if I'm not mistaken.

[@nick9669]

@@QuoPaperPlane he is indeed. Frank Thornton, aka. Captain Peacock. Also played Truly in Last of the Summer Wine for many years.

[@nick9669]

Great film. You can also watch “The Alf Garnett Saga”, which shows Alf adjusting to his new life in the Tower Block. Also starring the excellent John Le Mesurier.

[@timhill8941]

@QuoPaperPlane tragic, indeed. The scene that sticks in my mind, is when Alf goes to the pub , but the pub isn't there . Its boarded up , like the rest of the street . So sad , yet so true

[@theoldcoot55]

People are annoyed yet not once is the F Word used during the interview How times have changed

[@benchippy8039]

Compulsory purchase laws are still in effect and is absolutely disgusting. Goes to show just how free the people of this country really are if bureaucrat can turf u out with a fraction of what it’s worth to u to make way for new developments and the lucrative contracts they entail

[@stevecarter8810]

Yeah, I got the sinking feeling when I learned it's the council who get to do compulsory purchase AND the council who get to declare a building condemned.

[@MargaretUK]

It is disgusting, you're right. Whenever I talk about the fact that we own our house my husband always points out that we don't really, if a compulsory purchase was served on us we'd be out no matter what we thought 😡

[@buckodonnghaile4309]

They stole (paid him a pittance) my uncle's farm in Canada, claiming they needed it for an airport. Land sat vacant for years and then was sold off to developer friends of the politicians to make way for overpriced condos and suburban sprawl. If they try that with my farm, I'll end up in prison.

[@andrewp1075]

Danny knew

[@jagracershoestring609]

This happened in Eastbourne in 1972 to build a shopping centre. I watched the demolition crews knock the house down around an elderly couple who refused to move. Council jobsworths collecting backhanders. We bought our first house further down the street, with the council saying they would not knock it down after all. Two years later, I learnt that it was in the next phase of shops, previously cancelled. I found some government legislation that I used to get the council to buy me a brand new house, and fund it four miles away. So, been their, found a way out, and feel for those victims of modernisation.

[@clairebibby4519]

These terrace houses in Oldham were are part of history of the working classes of the North of England..there was o thought from the council went into knocking these properties down.. at least Lowry was able to paint these industrial towns and keep.their memories and history alive..

[@gordonspond]

Nothing's changed in 56 years!

[@jackwarren3080]

A house near me was granted grade II listed status in 1986 and 2 years later it was demolished to make way for a bypass. They do what they want!

[@WillScarlet1991]

All that history gone 😢😢

[@MiKeMiDNiTe-77]

Just amazing people

[@robharding5345]

You have to feel for those folks, not everyone was better off back in 68, only the well heeled didn't feel the pinch, unlike millions of average folks like this lady.

[@brijones]

happened to us in battersea 1968 we moved out all houses demolished and a big estate built

[@daydays12]

££££££££ for the developers. Shameful 😞

[@OldManRunning-dj7qi]

BBC back in the day. The days when they had good journalists who looked out for the common people of this country and exposed the murky underworld of the political class who made and passed laws that suited their own agenda. I felt for both the couple and the local business man. I’m sitting here wondering how they got on. Their spirits seemed crushed however I like to think these people gave the two-fingers and got in with rebuilding their lives.

[@tangerinedream7211]

And what they built became slums very quickly, incredibly bad construction on 1960s flats. Councils still paying for them long after these new flats have been flattened.

[@peterbutler6392]

The house my dad was born in was compulsory purchased in Kentish Town but was never pulled down. However the house my grandparents then had to buy was also compulsory purchased and actually was pulled down!! The compensation wasn't enough for them to buy a house in the same area so Camden Council had to re-house them in a flat on the Wendling Estate which was completed in about 1970 (and is now being demolished!) So they then had to pay rent to the council for the rest of their lives... Obviously we then never inherited their house, and actually have never been able to afford to buy a home in London ourselves

[@ProserpinePomegranate]

Compulsory purchase should not be allowed. It is disgusting and disgraceful that people lose their homes and have no say in the matter.

[@suzannehaigh4281]

Yep, happened in Leeds, classed perfectly good houses as slums, bought them very, very cheap and then did they build more houses? NO, they built the already planned ring road, cheaper to buy slums than houses for redevelopment.

[@daydays12]

Yes. The same everywhere in UK. Shameful

[@rensha8635]

How could it be better to be 60 meters up in the air? Removed from street life.

[@daydays12]

You are so right.

[@gordonspond]

NEVER EVER let the government "help" you!!

[@stephenholmes1036]

Correct they despise us.

[@daydays12]

good advice!

[@paulhargreaves1680]

In 1968. All this under a labour govt and local labour mp too probably. I felt very sorry for those people, worked hard all their lives and for what.... absolutely disgraceful.

[@dirkbogarde44]

Nobody legally should be able to buy and destroy a building. A law that should be banned.

[@PaddyWV]

They were still bulldozing stuff in the early 90's. I remember seeing half pulled down streets around Limeside then. Social Cleansing is another word for it

[@daydays12]

Yes 😞 So sad

[@premikyam2726]

a telling insight of how big government destroys the lives of hard-working people.

[@lodersracing]

I'd love to know the history of Danny and his life.

[@vantheman1238]

This was happening under a Labour Government led by Harold Wilson.

[@WillScarlet1991]

No different if it were a Tory one.

[@vaughanrichards7438]

​@@WillScarlet1991 That's the point. You would expect better from Labour.

[@WillScarlet1991]

@@vaughanrichards7438 True.

[@thomassmith7374]

@@vaughanrichards7438 not anymore unfortunately 😞

[@stevetheaker7286]

Mr Quinlen looks like he`s about to throw the towel in, walk off into the sunset and never come back

[@adzharrold5952]

Im not sure if anything has changed - now youd be arrested for saying " get a gun " and theyd send you a speeding ticket in the post for good measure. Ill probably go to jail just for writing this

[@jafes7]

just woke noncense mate if i said i had a gun id be arrested mate😂😂😂😂 cant say anything these days it's a joke nowadays 😂😂

[@denzel270]

Remember, this was under Labour.

[@nicolad8822]

Thing is every British city still has crumbling rows of old terraced houses which no one maintains properly even if they own them. Trees growing out of brickwork, dirty yards, it has only got worse. At what point does regeneration happen?

[@daydays12]

Absolutely true. Then once beautiful country is built over for up market houses to make ££££££ for developers.

[@Olivia-vn1tf]

@@daydays12 The "plastic" new build estate properties may have upmarket price tags but the build quality is very poor and they are densely packed.

[@MAAT33G]

When they was taking down houses 🏘️ they was taking communities apart. They new what they was doing and what they needed too do for their future. Like he said 1984

[@simon-oy6um]

Knocking down old slums to build new ones 😂😂😂

[@EMEL-hr4ut]

They eventually brought us grenfell tower

[@BeatUpRecordsCDs]

Danny the Tailor sounds like he is cutting a promo in a wrestling promotion.

[@kieronparr3403]

The challenger "Danny the Tailor"

[@pen2199]

Danny fury

[@northwaleslife4844]

They had no right to do this, they should have restored these houses

[@mariacrouch7109]

I TOTALLY AGREE PAST GOVES HAVE RPPED THE HEARTS OUT OF STRONG COMMUNITES SOME OF THESE HOUSES COULD OF BEEN RESTORED

[@YHBW1001]

Nothings changed. Large corporations and faceless government stamping all over the spirit of the people. When are we going to stand up to them?

[@QuoPaperPlane]

Liebour. The voice of the down trodden, hard working people of Britain sacrificing their health, lives and families at war only to be shat on and replaced by the raggedy illegal who wants for nothing.

[@daydays12]

Come the revolution.

[@windogmassey1]

It's happening right now in the UK and we stand by and watch it happen to the entire middle class.

[@jerryorange6983]

Even houses can be stolen.

[@eedobee]

Working class man slowly figures out they powers aren’t in his corner

[@garethjudd5840]

This appalling act cause social collapse and a subsequent drug and crime wave.

[@daydays12]

Indeed

[@williamharrison7797]

It happened to my family in 1967

[@Evemeister12]

This is why people nowadays don't look after council properties. Why put your blood, sweat and tears into something that can be so easily destroyed at any time?

[@peterharvey1762]

Danny told them Oldham

[@stoke101]

Danny, what a guy. Nothings changed, society is finished!

[@surreyscouse2873]

They only needed renovating not demolition.

[@grantmiller1077]

Is there a full version of this excerpt anywhere?

[@NoosaHeads]

The tyranny of governments "doing what's best for the community". Some government is necessary, of course, but give a little man a bit of power and he becomes drunk with the delight of ruling over his "inferiors." The problem is that those who are best suited to be politicians never want to become one. Those least suited to be politicians are often the ones in power. Politicians should be personally liable (in civil courts) for grossly irresponsible or financially unreasonable decisions. That would make them think very carefully before they caused their citizens to be socially or financially disadvantaged. Compulsory purchase should be something permitted only as an absolute last resort. (Otherwise, it's legalised theft).

[@InfiniteLoop]

Compulsory purchase, eminent domain both criminal laws enacted by crooks

[@factoryfactory7142]

Shopkeeper was a reet dude!

[@neverfeltguilty1786]

2024 and nothings changed. Same struggle for all time..

[@doodle3161]

Nothing has changed.

[@1972hermanoben]

Greed in action. Instead of investing in improvements, pile ‘em all into tower blocks where they take up less space, leaving room for more buildings. Disgraceful, disrespectful and dehumanizing, this policy sowed the seeds of the neoliberal nightmare of a political landscape we live in today. No wonder Thatcher seemed to offer such a lifeline to working people.

[@buffplums]

Such injustices…and after each new generation comes along, the hardships, injustice, pain and anger of the previous is swept under the carpet…. Those at the top don’t have an empathy for the working class, treat them lower than dirt. Nothing changes.

[@josilvester9159]

This is going to happen again if people can't afford to keep up with all the 'climate' demands on how there home is insulated etc.

[@donnasmyth45]

I thought exactly the same thing!

[@SteveSmith-zo4ml]

CPO legislation requires the market value to be paid for land and property. Obviously if you condemn a property as unfit for human habitation, then it has a very low market value. So it’s really the ‘public health regulations’ used to condemn the property that I’m wondering about. They probably doesn’t exist any more, but one would think that people had the right to challenge a proposed condemnation. Unfortunately, that would probably be beyond these people.

[@seanrm]

"reshaped" is doublespeak for, "destroyed"

[@daydays12]

Exactly.

[@urbanplanner7200]

You can't fight city hall.

[@GeoffDavis1974]

Still happening

[@robc3586]

And that was all done under a Labour government!

[@WestWing99]

"Streets in the sky"!

[@daydays12]

Shameful. These disgusting 'planners' don't live in their blocks

[@bryanmceneaney]

it was only just the beginning of the end of civilisation. I wonder how he got on after?

[@annacomnena217]

It sounds like Danny attended an early Delphi meeting.

[@jackstrop7520]

not much changes does it!!!!

[@RussellAlami]

A Labour Government - in power ! ! 😮

[@perlefisker]

Did the BBC broadcast this program? Astonishing if so. It seems to be concerned with reality.

[@fluffyfour]

Old BBC. Not current BBC - totally out of touch with anything but Woke, PC and dumbing down.

[@nicolad8822]

Think yourself bloody lucky. How many publicly funded broadcasters produced the quality of thought provoking content they have over the years?

[@daydays12]

My point of view exactly. What happened to the socially conscious BBC?

[@JoeK25301]

Ah, the days of house-proud wives.

[@johnmartinez7440]

...what?

[@JonnyInfinite]

This was pure theft

[@jamesburke2094]

Nb Worth bearing in mind that leyton was once quite prim Then, in the 80s pretty junky It's how the locals behave that matters. Things move on

[@Rowenzz]

They destroyed Salford

[@celestialteapot309]

What possessed their children to vote for Margaret Thatcher?