Three of Kingdom Housing Association’s longest serving employees have received long service awards after clocking up 80 years of service between them.

Area housing manager Alex McLaren was congratulated for 25 years’ service and presented with a certificate by Kingdom chairperson Freya Lees.

Carmen Hunter, senior development services officer at the Association’s Glenrothes headquarters, was also thanked for quarter of a century working with Fife’s largest housing association.

Finally, Kingdom chief executive Bill Banks was presented with a certificate marking his 30 years with the affordable housing provider.

Bill joined Kingdom in 1987 as the fourth employee of the organisation which has grown to employ 371 people.

He has spent most of his time developing new homes and recalled: “When I started with Kingdom we only had 16 flats in management and we all did a bit of everything. My main jobs at the start was rent collecting, helping with admin tasks and assisting with the management of the houses and the development programme.

“Very soon after I started, we doubled our stock to over 30 houses in management and another project on site. We were therefore really, really busy. I was asked whether I wanted to focus on housing management or development. I opted for development and never regretted it.”

He added: “Over the years we have grown significantly and I’m particularly pleased to have been part of the team that has developed over 5000 new homes over the years and helped Kingdom develop into such a diverse and progressive organisation.”