FOR more than 40 years, Edgar Hepworth has been the "rock" of community services in his area.

But now, at the age of 90, the former company director has decided to hang up his accounts book and take a well-earned rest.

Being a trustee of the Waterside Youth Club, the Open Door drop-in and furniture recycling centre and the Home Start initiative for young families, as well as other community work, has added up to a full-time job for Mr Hepworth, of Manor Road, Colne.

He began in 1967, as treasurer for the youth coffee bar in the cellar of the Maypole, where the health centre stands now, and in the 1970s he was the driving force behind setting up the South Valley children's action group.

With the action group, he helped set up the first Waterside Youth Club in the former Church of the Nazarene, Spring Lane, which still stands in the south valley.

Mr Hepworth said: "I have always been interested in working with the community, particularly the youth, although as I've got older it's been a lot less hands-on because for youth work you need younger people who can really relate to them.

"But being able to help out with the accounts and organisation of things has meant I have been able to be of service in the community and I think Waterside is an area which needs people with a passion to help. Now I've reached 90 it's been a bit of a watershed for me, and I think it's time to take a step back.

"I'll still be doing a lot with the Methodist church and the Rotary Club, though - keeping busy is very, very important to me.

"It's been a lot of hard work but it's been rewarding."

Friends and colleagues held a party in his honour on Thursday to celebrate the end of an era.

Manager of Open Door and fellow trustee at the youth club Stella Holmes said she would miss Mr Hepworth's passion.

She said: "He is an elderly man now but he has a young outlook.

"At Open Door and at the youth club we get all sorts of people with all sorts of problems. The problems youngsters have today are so different from people in his generation and he is completely abreast with the times.

"He's got a real heart for this area and he's a really lovely man. He's so well respected that he can walk into any room anywhere, say what he thinks and everyone will listen. He has that presence."

Pendle councillor and Waterside representative Tony Greaves said Mr Hepworth had been the "rock on which the youth club was founded."

He said: "People have come and gone and helped but he has always been there and he was the person who caused it to happen, working tirelessly behind the scenes to keep everything going."

Colne neighbourhood manager Andree Pomfret added: "He's always helpful, courteous and will go out of his way to make sure he has done everything he can to help. "He will be missed."