Friday Diary: David Parkin on retiring characters and getting grounded at Leeds Bradford Airport

IT’S always a bit sad to see successful long-serving business leaders retire but it makes it a bit more palatable when the occasion is marked with a nice dinner.

This summer two respected figures from the Yorkshire business community have moved on. Peter Smart, the chairman of Leeds law firm Walker Morris, has recently stepped down and he’ll be followed next week by his friend Ian Ward, the chief executive of Leeds Building Society.

Both their organisations have held dinners to mark their retirements and I’ve been fortunate to attend these august gatherings.

I’ll miss visiting Ian Ward to interview him when the building society announces its annual results. Ask a question about mortgage rates and he would leap into action, arms waving, pointing to the latest LIBOR rates on a whiteboard on his office wall.

This week he was more relaxed, proudly pointing out the society’s green credentials as we made our way onto the roof of its head office in Leeds city centre to share a drink close to a hive that 50,000 bees call home and plant pots containing an assortment of thriving vegetables.

After the dinner Ian recounted a story about he and a friend who, as teenagers, had successfully managed to get tickets to all the southern section matches of the 1966 World Cup for something like three pounds, 17 shillings and sixpence.

They kept all the tickets to England’s matches and sold the others for a total of four pounds, so enjoying all the matches having made a profit.

However the pair of teenage bank clerks faced a dilemma when England got to the final at Wembley and they were offered £100 each for their tickets.

“That was about a quarter of a year’s salary for me at the time,” remembered Ian.

The patriotic pair decided to keep their tickets and went off down Wembley Way to watch Alf Ramsey’s team triumph over West Germany.

Happy retirement Ian, and also to Peter Smart. I’ve enjoyed their company over the years and hope that retirement won’t put a stop to that.

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IT is true that Leeds Bradford International Airport has taken plenty of stick from the business community over the years, and I haven’t been shy about making my feelings known.

However, credit where it is due.

I’ve used the airport’s recently refurbished Yorkshire Premier Lounge on a couple of occasions recently and was pleasantly surprised at the experience.

It wasn’t just a relaxing place to spend time before a flight and grab a coffee and a snack. What helped was a real friendliness from the staff who certainly went that bit further to welcome travellers and make their stay in the lounge as pleasant and relaxing as possible.

That’s why I wasn’t surprised to see that the lounge has this week been shortlisted in the Best Airport Lounge category at the Holiday Extras Customers’ Awards.

It’s up against lounges at  airports including Birmingham, Edinburgh, Heathrow and Cardiff.

HolidayExtras.com, the travel add-on service, asked customers flying via UK airports to vote on their travel experience, and more than 60,000 have done.

Good luck to the Yorkshire Premier Lounge, it deserves this accolade.