A long-serving weekly editor is taking early retirement this week after more than three decades in the trade.

Dave Fox achieved a lifelong ambition nine years ago when he was made editor of his local paper, the Crewe Chronicle.

Now he is stepping down after a career spanning 32 years with parent group Trinity Mirror and its predecessor, Thomson Regional Newspapers, and 37 years in journalism.

His successor is another experienced Trinity-Mirror editor, Andrew Bowan, who is switching to the Chronicle from the editorship of the Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News as Dave himself did in 2000.

Said Dave: “I am very sad to be departing but looking forward to different challenges.

“My late father was brought up in Richmond Road at Crewe and my late mother at Wheelock and Nantwich, and it was always an ambition of mine to become the editor of the Chronicle in their patch of South Cheshire.

“The fact that I am a lifelong Crewe Alexandra fan also added to that.

“I had a tough act to follow in taking over from the widely respected Colin Roberts who had been in charge for 30 years and had just successfully seen the editions through the major transition from broadsheets to tabloids.

“To be the editor of the Chronicle at Crewe is to follow a very proud and enduring tradition. The paper has served the area since 1874 and in all that time, I believe, has only had five editors.

“When I took over in 2000 I pledged that the Chronicle would always be first with the local news, sport and advertising, and that it would always report the news without fear or favour. As I leave, I feel that pledge has been upheld.

“The Chronicle has consistently striven to be the voice of South Cheshire with not only a reputation for quality reporting, but also for standing up and fighting on behalf of the community.

“In the last few years the Chronicle and its team of journalists have won a string of industry awards but the greatest pride that we all take is in doing the best job we possibly can for our readers and for South Cheshire.”