TWENTY Three new members have joined the select Cleveland Potash 25-year club.

Twenty per cent of the total workforce at Cleveland Potash are now members of the club, equivalent to 170 staff, amassing a massive 4,250 years service in total.

The new members, their families and friends, gathered at Rushpool Hall in Saltburn to receive their inscribed gold watches from chairman Keith Jackson.

They are Les Bagley, Brian Cannings, Eddie Clyburn, Bob Featherstone, Keith Pattingson, Ian Pearce, Charles Walker, Dick Goodchild, Colin Harris, Mike Hodgson, Ian Wrigley, Malcolm Lowe, Roy Spence, Brian Marsden, Dave Sivillis, Ted Ward, Eric Wilson, John Stelling, Paul Suggett, Robin Sedman, Graham Wink, Robert Gibson and Andrew Pearson.

Thanking them for their loyalty, hard work and dedication, Mr Jackson said: "Spending 25 years with the same company is an important milestone in anyone's career. That 170 employees have now achieved it is nothing less than remarkable."