Community heroes who '˜love where they live' celebrated at awards

Tenants, residents and community groups were all among the deserving winners at the annual WDH Love Where You Live Awards grand final.

Those community heroes crowned for making the Wakefield area a better place to live, included Respect Champions Matthew Poxon, Alex Mossop and Callum Hirst.

Community Group winner was the 5 Towns Community Radio, while those honoured for Working with Older People were the Open Heart Memory Cafe.

The Digital in the Community title went to Friends of Fryston Woods, and the Community Champion was Angela Thomas.

Honours for Arts and Culture went to Tom’s Club, and this year’s Young Achiever was Bobbie Lea Poxon.

His green fingers won Rob Stringer the gong for the Best Garden.

The glittering event at Wakefield’s Cedar Court Hotel was sponsored by Sodexo. More than 11,500 votes were cast for this year’s string of winners.

More people were given chances to win this year too. Title winners receive £200 prize money, and second and third place runners-up are given £100 and £50 respectively.

The raffle raised over £320, to be donated to Wakefield Hospice and the Prince of Wales Hospice.

Chief Executive of WDH, Kevin Dodd, said: “Our Love Where You Live Awards have been a bigger and better success than ever before, with a record-breaking number of votes cast, for people and groups who make Wakefield a wonderful place for everyone.

“It is important that we celebrate the hard work and dedication that these people put into making their neighbourhoods friendlier, safer and even more enjoyable places to be, and we hope that the prize money they receive will go a long way to helping continue that work.”