A FAMILIAR face in the farming community is retiring after 30 years.

Peter Edmonds, group secretary of the North Riding and Durham branch of the National Farmers' Union (NFU), began working in Northallerton in August 1975.

In those days, his office consisted of a table in the front room of a house in High Street.

Thirty years on, he has a team of three working with hundreds of farmers in and around the town, representing both the NFU and insurance company NFU Mutual.

Mr Edmonds said: "It's the people I will really miss ... but I certainly won't miss all the red tape - something that increasingly besets us all."

He joined the NFU in 1974 after doing an agricultural degree at Writtle College, in Essex. He spent nine months at the union's headquarters in London before taking on the group secretary role in Northallerton.

Northallerton farmer Edward Dennison, chairman of North Riding and Durham NFU, said Mr Edmonds would be missed by many in the farming community.

"He has done a superb job over the years and is a real character, who has been a stalwart of the local farming community," he said.

His replacement will be Michael Hilyer, who is moving to Northallerton from Market Drayton in Shropshire.