IT'S all change at the top for the region's part-time soldiers in the Territorial Army.

The commanding officer of the Tyne Tees Regiment - Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Hopkins of the Green Howards - is leaving the post this week.

His successor in the role is another Green Howards TA officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ian McFarlane.

Lt Col Hopkins has commanded the regiment, which covers an area stretching from North Yorkshire to the Scottish border, since 2000.

A businessman living in North Yorkshire, he has had a distinguished career in the TA, which he joined in 1976.

He was commissioned into the 1st Battalion Yorkshire Volunteers in 1978 while at York University, and served two tours of duty as a rifle company commander before the battalion was re-badged as Green Howards after the Ministry of Defence's Options for Change review in 1993.

He subsequently served as both second-in-command and commanding officer of the Green Howards 4th/5th (TA) Battalion, at Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough.

He then held a number of staff posts in this country and in Kosovo. His next posting is to the Territorial Commissions Board.

His successor, Lt Col McFarlane, most recently served as Infantry Wing Commander of the Northumbrian Universities Officer Training Corps, in Newcastle, to which he was appointed last December.

He had previously been second-in-command at the Tyne Tees Regiment, after holding a number of posts with the 4th/5th Battalion, Green Howards, including four years commanding its B Company at the Stockton Road TA Centre, in Middlesbrough.

His first major challenge will be establishing the Civil Contingency Reaction Force North, a new development that will consist of 500 members of the region's reserve forces who volunteer for emergency call-out in the event of a crisis or disaster.