T. Dan Smith

Thomas Daniel Smith (11 May 1915 – 27 July 1993), also known by his nickname “Mr Newcastle”,"Southern Discomfort" (leading article), ''The Times'', 3 August 1993. was a high-profile British Labour Party politician who served as chairman of the Newcastle Labour Party from 1953 to 1965, and as Leader of Newcastle City Council from 1960 to 1965. He is best known for his work to clear Newcastle of slum housing and his plans to transform the city into "The Brasilia of the North". He supported the expansion of higher education, Newcastle Airport, and local arts institutions. In 1974, Smith pleaded guilty to corruption charges.

Among the developments in which Smith's council participated were the Newcastle Civic Centre and Swan House. The last led to the demolition of John Dobson's Royal Arcade, though Smith's council had it carefully dismantled and planned to rebuild it nearby. The succeeding council decided not to rebuild it. Smith's legacy became associated with the destruction of historic buildings in favour of unpopular concrete structures, despite the key developments happening mainly under other council leaders.

After leaving the council leadership, Smith ran a public relations firm and formed business links with architect John Poulson. In Smith's later life he campaigned for prisoners' issues and continued to comment on public affairs. He starred in a film of his life released in 1987.

Early life

Smith was born in Wallsend, the son of a Durham miner. His father drank heavily and was a gambler. His mother worked long hours cleaning the Wallsend telephone exchange and washing floors at the Shell-Mex office.

He attended Western Boys School in Wallsend and became a printer's apprentice at the age of 14. After a period of unemployment he founded his own painting and decorating business in 1937. During the economically difficult years of the 1930s, he grew his business painting cinema exteriors across Tyneside.

Both his parents were communists and Smith adopted left-wing opinions himself. During World War II, Smith registered as a conscientious objector and was initially active in opposing the war and organising strikes against it; he supported the war after the German invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. During the war, Smith joined several left-wing organisations. He was a regional representative for the Independent Labour Party in 1943, and later joined the Revolutionary Communist Party where he led a shipyard strike.

By 1945, he was a member of the Labour Party and in 1950 he was elected to Newcastle City Council as a Labour member representing the Walker ward. He became chairman of the Labour Group in 1953.

It was around this time that he began using his first initial in his name, after an incident at Newcastle Airport when he was confused with another person called Dan Smith.

Council leadership

When the Labour Party won the 1958 local elections and took control of Newcastle, Smith was appointed Chairman of the Housing Committee. He was elected as Leader of the City Council in 1959, and created one of the country's first free-standing Planning Departments and made it the most powerful department in the council. As Leader he instituted a personality-based leadership, creating an 'inner Cabinet' of his own supporters. So influential did Smith become that Lord Hailsham was sent up to Newcastle by the Conservative cabinet to try to counter him.

Smith was enthusiastic about town planning and the arts as means of improving the quality of life. He believed strongly in improving Newcastle's housing stock and put a great deal of effort into regeneration plans developed by his chief planning officer Wilfred Burns, suggesting that the city be nicknamed "The Brasilia of the North". Smith's council also began the planning for Eldon Square Shopping Centre, which would be completed in 1977, on plans drawn up in 1972, by Taylor Chapman and Partners. Other projects he supported included the expansion of Newcastle International Airport, which was completed in 1967.

Redevelopment was concentrated in the eastern part of the city centre, which had until then been occupied by 18th and 19th century housing. The streetscape design favoured a strong segregation between traffic and pedestrians. The plans also favoured the preservation of the historic core around Grey Street. Though it continued under subsequent councils, the development was left substantially incomplete.

Smith continued to run his painting business, which employed 250 by 1965. In 1962, he established a public relations firm to support redevelopment of other urban centres in the north-east, and later nationwide. This company formed links with John Poulson, an architect keen for the business and known for paying those who could supply it. Smith eventually received £156,000 from Poulson for his work, which typically involved signing up local councillors on to the payroll of his companies and getting them to push their councils to accept Poulson's prepackaged redevelopment schemes. Poulson earned more than £1,000,000 through Smith, who regarded him as the "best architect Britain ever produced." Poulson did not design any buildings in Newcastle, and there is no evidence of corruption during Smith's time as head of Newcastle's council.

He attracted criticism from fellow Labour Party members for his extravagant spending, driving a Jaguar with the private plate "DAN 68", educating his children privately and purchasing a pied-à-terre in St James's, London. Smith was a political contemporary and ally of North East Labour stalwart Andy Cunningham, who was also brought down by the Poulson scandal and served a jail sentence.

Political advancement

On the day after the 1964 general election, Smith waited for what he thought would be a certain phone call to invite him to become a cabinet minister in Harold Wilson's government. However, Wilson had a vague suspicion of Smith, and Smith's alliance with the more moderate side of the Labour Party meant that no such invitation was made. In early 1965, George Brown appointed Smith as chairman of the Northern Economic Planning Council, an advisory body. He resigned his council leadership to take this post, and served in it until 1970.

Smith was also to serve on the Buchanan Committee on traffic management and the Redcliffe-Maud Commission on local government. On the latter he promoted a scheme whereby England would be divided into five provinces with wide devolution, making Manchester the capital of the North province with 17,000,000 people.

He was a member of the Royal commission on Local Government in England from 1966 to 1969 and was chairman of the Peterlee and Aycliffe Development Corporation from 1968 to 1970.

Corruption trials

Smith's PR firm was involved with Wandsworth Borough Council in pushing a redevelopment scheme, where its contact was Alderman Sidney Sporle. Sporle fell under police suspicion of corruption in the late 1960s and an inquiry led to Smith being charged with bribery in January 1970. Although acquitted at trial in July 1971, Smith was forced to resign all his political offices.

In 1972 John Poulson went bankrupt. The subsequent examination of his books disclosed a web of unexplained payments and led to a series of hearings out of which the Conservative MP Reginald Maudling, former chairmen of two of Poulson's companies, was forced to resign as Home Secretary. A nationwide scandal erupted with conflict of interest accusations applying to councillors nationwide, however particularly in North East local authorities. Out of these investigations Smith was arrested in October 1973 on corruption charges. At his trial, it was claimed that he had received £156,000 over seven years, usually in the form of payment to his public relations company. He pleaded guilty in 1974 and was sentenced to six years' imprisonment; despite his plea he continued to assert his innocence.

After prison

While in prison, Smith became involved in amateur dramatics where he met and encouraged Leslie Grantham to pursue his career as a professional. Following his release, Grantham was to later star in the BBC
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