WE all know the importance of a good neighbour, with Cumbria being renowned for coming together and helping one another when needed.

At 60 years of age and an electrical shift worker at Kimberly Clark ,Paul Griffiths is described as a ‘proud family man who always puts others first’ receiving the Neighbour of the Year Award sponsored by Sellafield for all of his efforts in being a great neighbour.

Once lockdown hit Paul realised the impact it was having, especially on the elderly and vulnerable and so he signed up to become an NHS responder to help his neighbours with basic tasks such as collecting shopping and prescriptions.

This was underutilised in the area, so Paul decided to take his own steps to help others.

Paul decided to set up a local community Facebook group called Roosecote Community Hub to provide a platform for his neighbours to connect and get any support they may need.

He started it just before Christmas 2020 and very quickly there were neighbours offering to cook free Christmas lunches, shopping collections, dog walking, online yoga sessions.

The group has grown quickly and now has around 1.7k members and he now gets frequent messages or emails from neighbours asking for help or advice.

He uses his own money to buy things like warning signs for potholes or treats for litter pickers.

He’s paid to publicise community meetings, all for the benefit of his neighbours.

Paul said that he was proud to have set up the page which now helps many across his community even after pandemic restrictions eased following the lockdown.

Mr Griffiths also commended the other nominee’s shortlisted in the category, saying he was ‘really humbled’ to be given the award.

Paul said: “I must admit when I saw the other two nomination, I didn’t think I had a chance of winning.

“I feel really humbled that people have found me worthy of winning this, but I think were all winners really because we all do our bit for the community.

“I still run the Facebook page and really, it’s just growing and growing, people are now actually going out in the flesh and helping other people in the community, before it was just an online thing, where people are now going out and helping their neighbours whether it be fixing a tap or giving someone a lift.

“I’m proud that I have kind of instigated that but really it’s down to the neighbours that go and do that not just me.”

The runners up in the category for Neighbour of the Year were Carlisle milkman, who recently retired after 46 years David Welton and Julie Wedgwood who has set up over 70 food hubs across the county through Fareshare as well as working on community projects.