North East Lincolnshire street cleaner Martin ‘Elvis’ Beck, is celebrating more than 40 years in the job, and has no plans to stop working anytime soon.
Known as Elvis by his workmates, he joined the Council when he was 18 in 1978. Starting on a six-month temporary contract, he was assigned to emptying the bins around Cleethorpes for what was then called Humberside Council.
Following the creation of North East Lincolnshire Council in 1996, Martin was transferred to Street Cleansing where he has spent the last 28 years litter picking Grimsby town centre. However, despite his long service, he won’t be stopping anytime soon.
“I tried a number of other jobs before coming here, but I didn’t like them as much as I do this. I was at a bedding shop for about a week and a pop factory in Grimsby for a month too, but I became bored of them all.
“I went on to get a six-month trial with the Council and have been here ever since. This is by far the best job in the world and I’m the happiest I have ever been. Everyone here is great and we all get on with one another.
“Additionally, the job keeps me physically fit as I’m always walking around town and I love talking to people too. The interaction with others is one of my favourite things.
“Some people come up to me just to say how good a job I’m doing and that I’m keeping the town clean.” Martin spends most of his shift litter picking around the town centre, but is often helping out elsewhere across the borough.
However, despite over four decades in the job, he has no plan of stopping anytime soon. “I’ll keep going here until I’m at least 90 if I can, nothing will change my mind on that. If I could do this for 24 hours a day everyday I would, I just love the job and everything it involves.”
