THE officer who created Swindon Council’s licensing function from virutally nothing is to retire on May 3 after 28 years at the authority.

Lionel Starling, 60, transformed licensing from an administrative task into a broader, modern discipline that fits into the council’s vision and encourages input from other authorities and departments.

The head of licensing said there were bad bits in his job, such as the paperwork, but he had enjoyed the varied work, which includes licensing bars and off-licences.

The experienced officer, who has a team of four people, is also responsible for the regulation of animal health and farming, stray dog services, and street trading.

“There are good bits and bad bits, as with any kind of job. The good bits are that all kinds of strange questions get thrown at you all day long, things that have never happened before,” he said.

“You may switch from having a problem with street drinkers being in an area and suddenly someone rings up and says ‘I’m performing with a poodle on TV next week and I need a permit’.

“It’s fantastically varied. And in local government there are masses of very nice people who are committed, so working with all of them is a really great experience.”

Mr Starling went into local government 38 years ago as an environmental health officer in London before joining Thame-sdown Borough Council, the forerunner of Swindon Council.

He became the council’s licensing officer by accident when a man came into the office and said he planned to stage a rock concert for 60,000 people at Wroughton Airfield.

“Everyone looked at each other and thought: ‘What are we going to do with this one’?” said Mr Starling. “Because I’d had involvement in that kind of thing previously, I was about the only person who felt able to deal with that situation.

“So I saw my boss and said ‘If you want, I will organise our response to this’. And he grabbed my arm off and said ‘right, you are now the licensing officer’.”

Ironically, the concert never happened, but Mr Starling stayed as the licensing officer and built up the function to its modern day standard.

After dealing with hundreds of applications over the years, he is looking forward to having more time in retirement to visit new places and enjoy other activities, including his passion for photography and spotting butterflies and bumblebees.

“There has to be a point where you can make a break, and my view is I don’t want to make a break when it’s forced on me by circumstances,” he said.

“Being able to draw a line under it and do something entirely different is very attractive and something I’m able to do because fortunately I’m still in good health.”