HAVING been first elected to Darlington council on the day that Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female Prime Minister, Bill Dixon’s retirement as council leader marks the end of an era.

“I am the last of the class of 79,” he said, “but that’s because this job gets under your skin: there’s always one more job, one more policy, one more issue to get sorted before you go.

“But I’ve enjoyed 39-and-a-half years as a councillor, seven-and-a-half years as leader. I’m 65 now, and I decided in 2015 that I would not be running again, so it is the right time to call it a day.”

This means Darlington is now looking for a new face to lead it for the first time in a generation.

Labour leader John Williams took control of the council in 1991, with Mr Dixon as his deputy, and when Mr Williams stood down after 20 years, Mr Dixon stepped up to the top job.

Now he is to retire on July 19, with Labour having selected its new leader two days earlier. The timetable has been choreographed to compliment the retirement of Ada Burns as council chief executive – her successor, Paul Wildsmith, took up his post at the beginning of this month – and to allow the new leader to get their feet under the table in time for next May’s local elections.

With the Hippodrome complete and the Central Park development almost done, Mr Dixon feels his big projects are coming to a close.

“The town is a world leader in bio-pharmaceuticals, and there is a range of jobs at Central Park,” he said. “So many sixth formers work hard, do well in the town’s schools, go away to university and then can’t get the jobs to come back. If the town continues to haemorrhage like that, it will not have a future, so we have to attract that kind of industry.”

Mr Dixon’s years as leader have been characterised by the post-crash age of austerity, in which the council has lost about 40 per cent of its Government grant and 700 of its staff, as well as its arts centre, its golf course and, possibly, its library.

“We are one of the few authorities with a balanced budget through to 2021 and that’s because we have been absolutely resolute in having to make cuts because we have lost our grant from central government,” he said, paying tribute to the staff who had to write their own death warrants as they reshaped the council.

“None of the decisions have been taken lightly. I looked long and hard at the library, and I understand the objections to its closure, part of me has sympathy with them, but I have never ending demands from adult social care that we have to meet.

“If the plans go ahead as envisaged, I would like to set up a proper community trust to run the building and go for funds that are not available to councils or libraries.”

He advises whoever replaces him to develop “thick skin” because the online world leaves political figures open to abuse.

“I have tried to do what’s necessary to get the town in the best position,” he said. “I make mistakes – the person who hasn’t made mistakes has never done anything, but many of the comments are not informed debate, and some of the things I’m told to do are physically impossible.

“My successor will have to deal with the town centre, which I think will have to shrink,” he said, adding that he would like to see the council look to acquire the Binns building and convert the top two floors to residential.

But he pointed out that as jobs in traditional retailing are fading away so 3,000 jobs are being created at the east end of town in an online logistics hub, which is expected to become the home of the internet giant Amazon.

“They are building, they will be running a series of job fairs in April and they will be employing people from June onwards,” he said. “It is the beginning of a journey and soon we will see other developers on that site.

“Economically, the town is in the best place possible in the whole of the North-East.”

Mr Dixon, who will remain as a ward councillor until May, comes from a family of Darlingtonians – his great-grandfather was a Liberal councillor. Educated at the town’s Eastbourne school until “I was asked to leave”, he started out as apprentice turner at Whessoe, before working at the rolling mills and Cummins until he became a social worker for 20 years, specialising in child psychiatry.

He plans to spend more time with his wife, Lynne, who retired last year, and his daughter, Rosie, and to make more sausages and bacon.

“I would like to do something academic like a PhD, perhaps in the history of the Quakers, or in local government,” he said, finishing with a great chesty laugh.