THE Bungay area is one of the safest areas in the whole of the country to live.That is the claim this week from the man who has been policing it for much of the 30 years he has spent in Suffolk Police Force - Sgt Peter Goodfellow, who retires this weekend.

THE Bungay area is one of the safest areas in the whole of the country to live.

That is the claim this week from the man who has been policing it for much of the 30 years he has spent in Suffolk Constabulary - Sgt Peter Goodfellow, who retires this weekend.

It means he leaves the patch,

where he has lived for 25 years, in good heart as he hands over to his successor.

"I have loved every minute of it - it was definitely a good decision to join the police service and I would recommend it to anyone," said the community police sergeant for the Bungay area.

"This is a good place to be, and at the end of the day the sort of offences that occur here are on the whole on the lower end of the scale.

"We live in the safest area of Suffolk and our detection rates are always top. We are in one of the safest parts

of the safest county in England."

Sgt Goodfellow, who joined the force at 19 and is now 49, was born in Croydon, his family moved to Beccles when he was still a child, and he served the force at Newmarket, Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket before being promoted to sergeant in 1983 and moving to Lowestoft.

He moved to Beccles in 1998 and in 2002 took over as community police sergeant for Beccles, Bungay, Halesworth and Southwold, after a period based in Southwold.

Since moving to Bungay, Mr Goodfellow had become involved in the community. He was a governor at Bungay Middle and Bungay Primary schools for a total of 12 years; and having enjoyed being in drama productions when a student himself, he joined Bungay Theatre Group and has appeared on stage in recent productions.

But horse-riding is his main hobby. He has his own horse, Tom, stabled at Mendlesham, and he plans to do plenty of riding in retirement. He rides regularly with the East Anglian Bloodhounds, which follow a human scent.

He also plans to resume voluntary work at the Bungay veterinary practice.

And, of course, he will have more time with his family -wife Jackie and sons James, 22, and Matthew - and watching his favourite football team, Ipswich Town.

Sgt Sarsfield Donohue is looking forward to taking over the reins. Aged 38, he has been a sergeant in Essex since 2000, and transferred from Essex last week after 17 years service there - the last six as firearms officer at Stansted Airport.

Originally from Ireland, he now lives in Norfolk.