A PENSIONER who has spent the past decade and a half helping to revive a North-East community has collected his MBE from the Lord Lieutenant of County Durham.

Bill Cook turned down an invitation to Buckingham Palace and chose to collect his MBE from Sir Paul Nicholson at Darlington Town Hall - because he wanted his friends and family to attend the ceremony.

Yesterday, Mr Cook, fighting off illness, proudly collected the honour in front of about 25 colleagues and family.

Mr Cook, who is in his 70s and has lived in the Firthmoor estate in Darlington for more than 40 years, has worked to secure millions of pounds for regeneration and community projects, including a £1.3m community centre, housing development and a £2m primary school.

The grants have been instrumental in transforming the area which was blighted by crime, vandalism and anti-social behaviour in the 1990s.

Mr Cook is chairman of Firthmoor Community Partnership Board and vice-chairman of the community centre. He has also served as chairman of Firthmoor residents' panel and as secretary of Firthmoor and District Community Association.

He began volunteering in the community about 15 years ago and in 2001 was named Darlington's citizen of the year.

Yesterday, Dave Preston, treasurer of the Firthmoor and District Community Association, said: "Bill is a lovely fellow, warm and generous and loves the estate and what he does. He turned down Buckingham Palace and would have had the ceremony in the community centre if he could.

"It was lovely and Bill enjoyed it a lot. We are grateful the council agreed to put it on for him."

When he found out about his MBE in June last year, Mr Cook said the honour came as a shock and paid tribute to his fellow community workers.