FOR the past ten years, changing the face of Firthmoor has been Bill Cook's obsession.

The 72-year-old has been a leading member of numerous organisations on the Darlington estate and was instrumental in securing Government money to help pay for its regeneration.

Now, as the residents of Firthmoor are beginning to see the full fruits of his labour, Mr Cook is retiring.

"The hardest thing in my life I have ever had to do is stand down," he said.

"I feel it has been a great privilege for me to work with these wonderful people.

"Everybody's heart has been in the same direction - to make Firthmoor a better place to live."

The father-of-three and grandfather-of-seven, originally from Canterbury, Kent, was sent as a soldier to Catterick before serving in the Korean War as a sergeant.

He returned to the North-East in the early 1950s, where he married Mabel, or May as he called her, and the couple moved into a prefabricated home on the Firthmoor estate.

"I loved the people on the estate straight away," he said.

"I have always had wonderful neighbours and there really was a community spirit."

Mr Cook began volunteering on the estate and elsewhere in the town about 15 years ago.

In the 1990s, when Firthmoor was rarely out of the news for problems with car crime, burglaries and anti-social behaviour, he read about new Government funding to regenerate estates.

"I must admit it was a lot of hard work to apply," he said.

"But eventually we were told that we had got the money - about £4.5m. Since then, everything has gone from success to success."

Mr Cook was the first chairman of the Firthmoor Regeneration Partnership Board.

He was also secretary of the community centre, chairman of Darlington Residents' Panel, a lay visitor for Darlington Borough Council social services and an active Labour Party member. He was named Darlington's Citizen of the Year in 2001.

Now a widower, ill health has forced him to retire from his community activities.

"My health is not good and I really need a rest," said Mr Cook.

"Hopefully if I get better I can start to get involved again with things on the estate."