A COMMUNITY-minded fundraiser who helped Droitwich's much-loved Lido Park rise from the ashes after an arson attack has received national recognition for his efforts.

Matt Nicol, director of Nicol and Co estate agent, which has offices in Droitwich and Worcester, just missed out on being named Community Crowdfunder of the Year at the JustGiving Awards 2015 on Wednesday night.

He was shortlisted in to the final three out of 20,000 people after he started a fundraising campaign to rebuild the Droitwich Lido after it was burned down in an arson attack in July last year.

Mr Nicol and his staff immediately started trying to raised around £16,000 needed to replace the park in time for the summer.

He said: “We've all been past the Lido park play area or used it with our children at some point. It's important to the local area and therefore important to us. We wanted to raise as much money as we could locally to help Wychavon District Council replace and improve the park."

Mr Nicol used JustGiving to raise the money needed, saying he wanted "somewhere transparent" where people could see the money building up.

"I'm chuffed to bits at what we managed to achieve in such a small space of time. The community did the bulk of it — all I was was the channel to bring people to the JustGiving site.

"We've had a lot of people say to us that the new park is even better than the old park and they're really pleased with what's in there," he said.

"Although I didn't win, it was an amazing evening with some very inspiring people. I was honoured to even be mentioned among so many."

Lynn Stevens, parks officer at Wychavon District Council, said the park has been well used in the year since it was rebuilt.

She said: “It has been another busy year for the Lido Park and visitors have enjoyed using the play area and the new play equipment that was installed last year following the fire. We are grateful for the public fundraising that enabled us to remedy the damage caused by vandalism.

"The Lido Park has again been successful in retaining its Green Flag status for 2015/16, and we are pleased to be able to fly the flag as evidence of the hard work of our team but also as a signal to our residents of the quality and cleanliness of this wonderful green and open space. It will soon be the time for glorious autumn colours and we hope to see plenty of people visiting and enjoying this lovely time of year in the park.”