THE head of the Crown Prosecution Service's East Lancashire branch is set to take on a new challenge in East Anglia, amid a major shake-up in the organisation.

Mr Peter Tidey, who has worked in Lancashire for 19 years, takes up the post of chief crown prosecutor in Norfolk after Easter. His move comes as the Crown Prosecution Service undergoes reorganisation into areas to coincide with police forces.

Mr Tidey, who currently lives in the Calder Valley, just outside Todmorden, will be based in Norwich.

He found out just three weeks ago that he had been successful in gaining his new position. Acting head when he leaves the Burnley branch will be one of his colleagues, Mrs Sue Riley, while a new chief prosecutor for Lancashire takes up the reigns next week. Mr Tidey was educated at Liverpool University and after articles worked for a firm of solicitors in Halifax. He was then employed for two years in West Yorkshire County Council prosecuting department, before coming to Lancashire in the prosecution department of the Lancashire County Council, based at Burnley, in 1980.

He is looking forward to the new task ahead in Norfolk, but at the same time will not leave Burnley without some sadness. He said: "I have built up a lot of friends and working relationships over many years and they will be missed, but there is a new challenge for me in a different part of the country."

Tributes were paid to Mr Tidey at the final meeting of groups involved in the fast tracking system which has been a piloting initiative in Blackburn and Burnley magistrates courts and a presentation was made by Mr Laurence Loft, clerk to the justices at Blackburn. A more "informal" gathering was held at the Inn at Burnley Wharf when friends and colleagues were able to say their farewells.

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