Community man Peter Nix has been sprucing up the Charlton Centre in Dover High Street since he took over running it in January.

Born and bred in Dover, Mr Nix, 30, of Bunkers Hill Avenue, juggles his responsibilities with family life and his main interest, photography.

His business, Peter Nix Photography, has benefited from the improvements within the centre and gives him the chance to do something he loves.

“It is slowly getting there,” he said.

“The owners approached me to run it after Christmas. Since then I’ve added three new shops, kids’ rides and I’ve put some plants out the front.

“The main focus is cleaning it up and getting it up to standard.”

As well as doing the place up, Mr Nix is also keen to get people flowing through the centre again, much as he recalls doing as a child.

To that end, he has organised regular games of bingo in the centre on the last Wednesday of the month. The first session attracted 20 people.

“What I want to do is make people aware of what is here,” he said.

“People can come in and literally get everything they need for their homes.

“They don’t need to go off to these other places.”

All that Peter is doing for the centre and for Dover has not gone unnoticed, as the father-of-three was the runner-up in the People of Dover awards, for the business of Dover category.

It was hosted by the town council and sponsored by the Mercury.

His nomination reads: “Peter has taken on responsibility of the Charlton Centre and is, through listening to the public, injecting some community spirit back into the town.”

He said: “My business is not even a year old. It was quite amazing to get that.

“I love Dover, but it has a lot of problems and it needs the right people to come in,” he added.