Future Leader Stories: Ben Maloney

What the Tory council and MP failed to do in years on the Ladderswood Estate in Enfield, the new Labour Council achieved in just weeks, with the help of the Movement for Change.


With the current Tory ward councilors and MP anonymous on the estate, I’ve been privileged to lead a group of dedicated Labour Party members to help improve the lives of residents in one of the most deprived areas of the borough. One of the biggest problems facing the residents of Curtis House, where two of the failed London bombers prepared their attack in 2005, is anti-social behaviour with drug-taking, violence, and homeless people sleeping rough in the building, creating an environment of fear and insecurity.


Having attended a Movement for Change training and built my team we began to run community walks in the area and quickly broke the problem of insecurity down into a smaller, manageable issue - faulty external doors which outsiders are able to force open on a daily basis.


Through one-to-ones we built a team of leaders living in the estate and organised a negotiation between the Deputy Leader of the Council and the Movement for Change to discuss concerns surrounding the security door. After hearing some moving testimony, the council subsequently agreed to replace the doors with more robust versions, to the delight of the residents who have been asking for this for the past eight years, with no success and no improvement to their security. Two of them, Angela and Noelia, have been instrumental in driving forward the process of change on their estate, making demands of the new Labour Council and having the courage to hold them to account.


Improvements such as those in Ladderswood are an important step in developing the sense of community in the estate, by proving the benefit of organising together to hold the ineffective Tory ward councillors and MP to account. Our work in Ladderswood doesn’t end at the doors; we’re now organising action groups on the estate to tackle other key issues on the estate, such as faulty CCTV and drug-taking.


Needless to say, the Conservative Enfield Southgate MP David Burrowes has been rattled, lashing out at Movement for Change and attempting to brand its positive work in the community as a PR stunt. The bad news for Burrowes is that this isn’t simply a one-off, it’s a movement. Why? Because the people of Enfield can tell the difference between positive action, and hollow words.


So what hope for the future? Well last month the Movement for Change delivered the first Ladderswood Community Day on the estate. Almost 100 people turned out to meet one another, share their concerns and enjoy the food and entertainment that had been delivered by the residents. Some, such as Antonica, had lived on the estate for 31 years but had never had the opportunity to join in a community event organised by the residents.

Others, such as 10-year-old Mark, were actively involved in setting up on the day. Mark’s neighbour at 58 Curtis House used to be Muktar Ibrahim, the notorious London Bomber. But those days are ending. And with the help of Movement for Change the Ladderswood Estate is starting to shake off its image of failure and despair, to build a movement of hope and optimism. And, most importantly, a movement for change.

Ben Maloney