CLIFF Giddings has retired after 38 years service with Kennet District Council and its predecessor authorities.

Mr Giddings started work for Marlborough and Ramsbury Urban Borough Council in 1965.

He then transferred to Pewsey Borough Council some years later.

He became one of the first employees appointed to the newly formed Kennet District Council after local government reorganisation in 1974.

He began his local government career as a refuse loader and retired as a senior officer with responsibility for a workforce of 60 employees. An official retirement ceremony was held at Kennet House, Hopton Industrial Estate, in Devizes when the chairman of Kennet District Council, Coun Peter Veasey, presented him with a pair of porcelain foxes on a wooden plinth.

Mr Giddings is a keen follower of country pursuits and now intends to spend more time out and about in the countryside and rebuilding his collection of vintage tractors.

Mark Smith, Kennet's environment and amenity services manager, said: "He was well respected by his colleagues, residents and councillors alike."