THE man at the helm of Pennine magistrates' courts has stood down - almost 40 years after starting out making the tea!

Peter Harling has retired after a 38 year career which has seen him rise from office boy to clerk to the justices - and qualify as a barrister in between.

Keen cricket fan, Mr Harling, who has just overseen a case fast-tracking initiative piloted in Burnley, felt that at 55, the time was right to leave professionally and personally, and looks forward to new ventures. He says one innings is over, but there's always the next.

Born in Oldham, father-of-two Mr Harling began on the lower rung of the legal ladder as an office boy at Manchester City Magistrates' Court in 1961. From there, he worked his way through the offices and in 1968 was appointed a court clerk. He then moved to Stoke Magistrates' Court and then went on to Bury Magistrates' Court as Principal Assistant. During a decade at Bury, he studied at home, took his bar exam and joined Grays Inn.

Mr Harling took on his first clerkship in 1981 at Middleton and Heywood and came to Lancashire in 1988, taking up the post at Hyndburn and Rossendale. In 1993, the local area was split into five clerkships and from next spring, there will be one clerk to the justices for Lancashire.

Mr Harling said he was sad to leave the courts. He said: "We operate as a team and have had a good rapport with people."

Mr Harling says he is retiring on something of a "high" after the believed success of the fast tracking system, which had meant a speedier disposal of cases. He went on: "The scheme, which was piloted in six areas of the country, including Burnley and Blackburn, gave me an opportunity to make a difference.

"On a personal level, it brought me into contact with the Home Office. The scheme is planned to be introduced throughout the country in November."

Mr Harling and his wife, Diane, live in Mellor. They have two daughters, Asley, 26, a pharmacist at a London hospital, and Nancy, 22, a trainee solicitor in Preston. He has recently joined the Clitheroe Lions, hopes to start a computer course and plans to get involved in voluntary work.

Tributes flowed during a farewell ceremony at Burnley Magistrates' Court. Mr Basil Dearing presented Mr Harling with a £100 cheque on behalf of local solicitors and which Mr Harling will be donating to Burnley and Pendle Hospice.

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