BOROUGH treasurer Mr John Cook is to retire in the spring after 34 years in local government.

Mr Cook was in London this week as part of a Bury Council lobby pressing for better council funding from the Government.

Indeed, the battle against cuts has dominated Mr Cook's time in the post since he took over from Bury's former director of finance, Mr Brian Smallridge, in 1993.

Married with two grown-up sons, Mr Cook started work in local government in Bury in 1964 . He spent most of his career in the town apart from a brief spell with Urmston UDC shortly before returning to Bury to take up his current post.

Mr Dennis Taylor, chief executive of Bury Council, paid tribute to Mr Cook's work during the cuts.

"In the last six years alone the council has seen more than £36 million cuts in its budget," he said. "John has always given the council the soundest financial advice and used every available mechanism and innovation to seek to preserve essential funding in the face of repeated cutbacks.

"The constant unrelenting pressure of the job would clearly have proved insurmountable to anyone without John's remarkable skills and determination."

Mr Cook is the third senior officer to take leave of the council in recent weeks. Social services director Mr Dave Ashworth has also taken early retirement, and his assistant, Mr Jim Wilson, has moved elsewhere.

The retirements come after a major shake-up of senior posts at the council. Mr Cook was in the running for the post of director of corporate services, which went to council solicitor Mr Stan Monaghan.

Councillor Steve Perkins, chairman of the council's finance sub-committee, said: "The council has been forced to restructure its organisation to meet the major changes affecting local government.

"We are grateful that John Cook has seen us through that difficult transitional change, and we extend our best wishes to him and his family in his well-earned retirement.

"He will unquestionably be a difficult act to follow."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.