Council honours retiring staff member celebrating 47 years’ service
When Les Reynolds hangs up his high-vis gear at the Griffin Lane depot today (Tuesday) it will be for the final time in a career spanning nearly five decades. Friends and colleagues gathered to say goodbye and wish him well as he retires.
Les, who most recently worked as a gully machine operator, began his career in what was then Buckinghamshire County Council, straight out of school, aged 16, in August 1975. Les explains: “I hadn’t planned to work at the council. When I left school, I wanted to work as a carpenter on a building site but when I went to the job centre, they didn’t have any jobs like that. They told me they had this job at the council and suggested I take that in the meantime, until another job came up.” Les chuckles: “47 years later I’m still here!”
Looking back on his career Les isn’t sure what kept him at the council: “I liked the job I was doing. People have come and gone but it’s been good working with them all.”
Over his time working at the council, life has obviously changed as towns and villages have got bigger and the population of Buckinghamshire has grown. Les looks back fondly: “When I started out the roads were a lot quieter, there wasn’t so much traffic, it was very different.” Over the years Les has built up lots of skills and experience and has enjoyed sharing it with new colleagues who have come and gone.
Les has worked on thousands of jobs across the north of the county during his tenure but one of the biggest he remembers is personally laying many of the cobbles that currently cover the historic Market Square in Aylesbury when it was pedestrianised in 1990.
One of the things Les won’t particularly miss about his job is the early morning starts. He says: “I won’t miss getting up at 6.30 in the morning or working out in the cold and the rain but I will miss my colleagues, the camaraderie in the mess room.”
Les, who lives in Wing with his wife, Hazel, doesn’t have particular plans for his retirement but is looking forward to spending more time with his wife and having time to do his own thing: “I can do what I want when I want”, he says.
Steven Broadbent, Cabinet Member for Transport said: “I’d like to congratulate Les for reaching this magnificent milestone and also to thank him for the hard work and dedication he has given to his job in the past 47 years. He will clearly be missed by his work colleagues, but he deserves some time to relax and enjoy his retirement, so we wish him all the best.
“Les may be leaving the council in person, but his legacy will live on in the thousands of road maintenance jobs he has carried out in the nearly five decades he has worked here. Goodbye Les and thank you!”