WHITEHILL Town Council has bid farewell to its grounds maintenance officer.

At the end of July, after almost nine years with the council, Dick Grinter decided it was time to retire to spend more time with his family and pursue his love of fishing and painting.

Colleagues and friends joined Mr Grinter and his wife Eileen in the council chamber, at the Forest Community Centre, for a party, at which councillor Adam Carew presented Mr Grinter with a garden voucher for the work he had undertaken while employed by the town council.

Mr Grinter made many friends while working out and about around the town and had become a well-known, popular and respected figure in the community who “will be very much missed”, the council said.