A CHARTERED accountant has marked half a century in business - and is still going strong.

Jonathan Nicholson Straughan, known as Jack, has celebrated 50 years as a practising chartered accountant in Chester-le-Street, Durham, Consett, Stanley and Washington.

Mr Straughan, aged 80, has no intention of retiring. He is still a partner in B J Straughan and Partners in Chester-le-Street and Stan-ley, as well as John Alderdice and Son in Consett.

"I don't do any desk work any more, just public relations," he said.

"I might be in my 80th year, but I am still pretty fit and am very interested in what the Institute of Chartered Accountants is doing."

Born in Stanley, he moved to Chester-le-Street in 1955, when he married his wife, Elizabeth. He is a lay preacher at Chester-le-Street Methodist Church and was president of the Northern Society of Chartered Accountants in 1984.

He is also a former president of the town's Rotary Club and former chairman of the northern board of the Bradford and Bingley Building Society.

He is a Freeman of London and a member of the exclusive Chartered Accountants Livery Company.