COMMUNITY spirit is on the rise in Wallasey thanks to the brainchild of one tech-savvy resident who decided to bridge the gap between his neighbours by setting up his very own social network.

The days of borrowing a cup of sugar from a neighbour or sharing the latest gossip over the garden fence may be a thing of the past but not for 32-year-old Paul Hayes, who hopes to re-inject that sense of community through EastFloat.com.

Paul, who has lived in the East Float Quay apartments with his girlfriend for a number of years, was finding it difficult to get to know his neighbours and found community spirit seemingly non-existent.

After trying a number of avenues – including Facebook and existing community networks – Paul decided to take a different approach, teaching himself code and building a basic but extremely useful social network for those living around him.

Paul said: “I’ve always thought local communities are very important. Everyone needs their friends in their lives, but you don’t see them every day and quite often they don’t live near you.

“Your neighbours are always there so it just makes sense to get to know them so you can have a chat, be friendly and help each other out when needed.

“However, it's not always as simple as just nipping along your street knocking on every door as you go.

“That’s why I decided to create EastFloat.com, to help simply this issue and bridge the communication gap between me and my neighbours.”

After setting up the site, Paul posted out letters with unique invite codes on to each apartment and to his amazement, nearly every flat had signed up within the week.

He added: “It’s like a virtual garden fence that you can lean over and chat to all your neighbours – or just a few of them if you choose – at once.”

As well as allowing neighbours to get to know each other, EastFloat.com has also become useful for selling, swapping and sharing items between properties.

It is also used to report crime and safety issues between neighbours, recommending local services to people, as well as giving residents a united voice.

Paul said: “Since I started the site, it’s just got busier and busier. Facebook is great for chatting to friends and it does try to allow you to post to loads of people in a whole region, but it doesn’t let you speak to people just on your street, or even the surrounding streets.

“That neighbourly interaction is what makes a neighbourhood and community and there is no current way to do that, well, not until I launched EastFloat.com.

“The site isn’t just for young tech savvy people either, it’s perfect for all age groups.”

He added: “EastFloat.com is free and built specifically to help form stronger, safer communities and that’s the way it will stay.”

If you live in the area and would like to join, email Paul on Paul@eastfloat.com and he’ll make sure your community is set up and you and your neighbours get codes to join.