Derek calls it a day after four decades tending the parks

Arbroath man Derek Atkinson has taken leave of a council parks career that extended for almost 40 years.

Colleagues at the Cairnie Depot yesterday said farewell to the married father-of-three, who began work at the former Angus District Council’s Bellevue nurseries in June 1978.

Mr Atkinson became a parks officer in 1989, with duties extending to all the town’s open spaces and burial grounds.

Parks maintenance manager Jim Norman led the farewell.

Picture: Paul Smith. Derek and his wife Catherine.