TRIBUTES have been paid to Woodford Green community activist Nisar Rais, who has died suddenly at the age of 70.

A much-loved and popular figure locally, Mr Rais was perhaps best known for helping to spearhead the extraordinary campaign by residents in Broomhill Walk against a property developer's plans to knock down an historic Victorian house and replace it with flats.

During the long-running saga neighbours helped defeat repeated planning applications for the project, witnessed a police raid which uncovered a cannabis factory inside the supposedly empty house and also saw a shocking suspected night-time arson attack on the building.

Just weeks before he died the developers finally gave up on their plans, and renovated the house instead for a new family to move in.

His wife Roxane, 57, said her family was devastated by his sudden death.

She said: “We are just shocked and very sad. He was a hardworking and gentle person who was the rock for his family, wanting to protect them all the time and never let them down in any way.

“He loved this area. During the problems we had with everything that was going on with the house next door some of us felt like moving, but he insisted we stay.

“It wasn't just that we were living next to the house – he genuinely cared about the impact it would have on the whole community. He never gave up.”

Mr Rais grew up in Pune, near Mumbai in India. A keen and talented cricketer, he made a name for himself captaining his local team in the nationally famous Ranji Trophy.

In the early 1960s he moved to England to play for Whitehaven Cricket Club in Lancashire, arriving in the country with just £3 to his name.

Later he retired from the sport and worked for the international section of Lloyds Bank. In more than 30 years work he never had a day off sick.

He married his wife Roxana in 1970, and shortly afterwards the couple moved to Woodford Green, where they had two children.

Mr Rais had been suffering from flu and died in the space of a few days after contracting pneumonia.

He was buried at The Garden of Peace Muslim Cemetery in Hainault.