Calling time on waste collecting

Mr Pedder started his career with the now defunct Amersham Rural District Council is 1967 as a spare driver. Later he took on the mantle of driver on the Amersham-on-the-Hill refuse round and he remained commendably part and parcel of proceedings until April 2007.
For the past 14 months Mr Pedder has been an auxiliary driver responsible for the bulky items collection round.
Following the reorganisation of local government, back in 1974, the district council emerged and Mr Pedder duly moved to take up a berth with his new employers.
Mr Pedder said he had greatly enjoyed his career and working with his many fine colleagues in Amersham.
Brian Ashby, business manager at Verdant, the company which oversees the district council refuse service, said: "Fred has been a font of all knowledge and a great help since Verdant took over in 2004.
"He is a member of a dying breed in this and in many industries nowadays - a man who has made a lifetime choice in his job and stuck to that through thick and thin."
Mr Pedder's wife of 45 years, Carol, said of her husband: "Fred has really enjoyed his job over the past 42 years and not many people can say that.
"Many of the householders he has known over the past 40 years are now classed as friends who will stop and chat in the High Street and tell him it won't be the same without him."
One resident of Chesham Bois commented: "Fred is a generous big-hearted man and I have heard of many kindnesses that he has shown to elderly or lonely people on his rounds."