Stagnant. Desolate. Run-down. These are just a few words used to describe the Lansbury Park estate in Caerphilly in the past – and it’s been called much worse.
The estate sits in the St James ward, just a stone’s throw from Caerphilly Castle, which in 2014 was named the most deprived area of Wales in the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation, moving up from second place in the 2011 census.
St James scored highest in poor educational achievement, lack of facilities and high unemployment in the most recent Index findings, and Caerphilly MP Wayne David at the time dubbed it “truly shocking news” calling for the government to provide much-needed investment in Lansbury Park.
One community group is aiming to shed the poor stigma and negative attitudes aimed at the estate, and have made impressive strides in pushing for changes.
Lansbury Matters has been running since March 2015, and is spearheading a campaign to revitalise the estate.
The group committee is made up of seven women: Michelle Mckenzie-Jones, Natasha Evans, Sian Denatalle, Julie Evans, Brenda Tibbett, Gemma Parfitt and Cllr Elaine Forehead.
Chaired by Mrs Mckenzie-Jones, the group has helped to secure a £12 million council regeneration project for the Lansbury Park estate.
Their first port of call was the old community hall, which had stood derelict and unused for 25 years at the heart of the estate.
Supported by St James councillor Elaine Forehead, Lansbury Matters petitioned around the estate calling on Caerphilly County Borough Council to restore the dilapidated building.
After securing more than 600 signatures from the residents of the estate, which contains approximately 900 homes, the group and Cllr Forehead presented the petition at a full council meeting in March last year.
With the building far from looking like the thriving community hub of old, the council approved demolition earlier this year with a £100,000 grant from the Welsh Government’s Vibrant and Viable Places fund, and the initial stages of demolition took place on Tuesday March 8.
Cllr Forehead said: “In 90% of the homes we knocked on, someone had a memory of the community centre, whether it was a grandparent’s birthday, a youth disco or even the annual Miss Van competition.
“The community centre used to be the focal point for Lansbury years ago, somewhere for all ages, but it’s just sat there for 25 years with nothing going on.
It’s been stagnant for so long now, but we’re finally seeing some movement.”
Once demolished, the site of the former community centre will be turned into green landscaping.
Mrs Mckenzie-Jones said: “Lansbury is densely populated, with hardly any green spaces for children, so the new landscaping will bring some colour to the grey.”
However, the impending demolition is not symbolic of the end of a year’s worth of hard work – quite the opposite. This is the first step of many to come.
Alongside the community centre campaign, the group has done a variety of things to boost the development of the area over the past year.
Together, under the banner of Lansbury Matters, they have fought tooth and nail to improve conditions in the most deprived part of Wales and get rid of the undesirable reputation that comes with the forgotten estate.
Mrs Mckenzie-Jones has a degree in Environmental Health and after moving to Lansbury Park from Aberbargoed, decided to use her knowledge to benefit the estate.
She said: “Basically, since the start we haven’t sat back. We have more power as one community, and our objective has been to close the inequality gap and reduce the social stigma associated with the estate.”
Lansbury Matters has set up seven sessions for the community to get involved with, from Little Stars – to give children from Lansbury confidence in moving from primary to secondary education, to parent and toddler dance sessions and women’s fitness classes to improve upon the ward’s poor health ranking.
The aim is for Lansbury Matters to hand the running of such sessions over to local residents, and with help from Communities First – a Welsh Government initiative to help people in deprived areas – provide full training so they can be sustained.
The relationship between the group and Communities First has not always been one of peace and tranquillity.
Lansbury Matters have been critical in the past of the way that Communities First have passed information and help to local residents.
Cllr Forehead agrees that Communities First could have reached out to people on the estate more.
She said: “I think Communities First should be run by the people, that’s exactly what the whole theory was about, and at the moment in Lansbury Park I don’t feel there are enough residents to make the changes needed and that’s where we can make the difference.”
Time credits are also being used as an incentive to get residents to roll up their sleeves and volunteer in the community.
Working on the mantra of ‘give an hour, get an hour’, volunteers can earn time credits by helping in the community and can spend them at a variety of locations across South Wales, including leisure centres, theatres, and even on tickets to sporting events.
“Time credits are a great way to get people involved and busy”, said Mrs Mckenzie-Jones.
“We’re providing the Lansbury community with a voice.”
The women’s battle to improve the area was bolstered by a BBC Wales team shadowing their every move over the past year for a Week In, Week Out programme, broadcast on BBC One on Monday March 14.
Mrs Mckenzie-Jones said: “The BBC coverage has been a massive boost. Their presence helped us put pressure on the council and even kept us together when we’ve had our arguments.”
As well as keeping up with the group, the programme also followed the work and challenges of head teacher Paul Samuel as he attempts to turnaround standards at St James Primary School – the mainstream school on the estate.
Falling educational standards were the major reason the area had slipped to the worst ranking on the Welsh Medium Index of Multiple Deprivation.
Mr Samuel told the programme: “We get children coming in the nursery who can’t talk, some that can hardly walk – many are not self-toileting so still coming into school with nappies – they certainly cannot read or write or hold a pen or pencil so really are starting well below where you would expect to a child to be in nursery or reception.”
Mother-of-six Annemarie Bridgeman was also featured with her four youngest children, Niall, Lee, Miley and Cian. Annemarie is passionate about education and doesn’t allow her children to miss a day of school. Her eight-year-old son Lee is bucking the trend in his education and excelling in maths.
Annemarie said: “I don’t want my kids on the dole. I want them to do really great in school. Life on the dole is not fun, you know? And I try to explain that to them. So work hard and you get a good job and you can go places. Like, he wants to be a professional football player; I reckon Lee could be the next Prime Minister because he is that clever in the head. But it is finding the right education around here for him.”
Lansbury Matters has been at the forefront of the planned improvements to such a degree that members Mrs Mckenzie-Jones and Natasha Evans have been asked to sit on the council’s Regeneration Audit Panel, and will have a vital say in upcoming meetings about design and suitability of facilities on the estate.
The group are hopeful that a £1m resource centre can be built soon, offering a nappy dispensary, school uniform recycling and a food bank.
As the first bricks began to fall with giant metal claws tearing at the decrepid community centre’s crumbling walls, cheers went up from the onlooking women.
“We’ve proven a point”, said Cllr Forehead.
“Lansbury Park has a lot of passion and community spirit and is prepared to use it.
“This really feels like we’ve achieved something. The council listened to us, and maybe now other communities will see what we’ve done and will stand up and reach for what they want to achieve.”
Lansbury Matters Treasurer Natasha Evans added: “It hasn’t been easy, but today makes all the ups and downs worth it. This is just the beginning.”
Their hard work has not gone without notice either.
Members of Lansbury Matters were honoured at Caerphilly Castle on Tuesday March 15, picking up several Communities First Celebrating Success awards.
Named after George Lansbury, the former Labour leader of the 1930s who campaigned for social justice and improved living and employment conditions for the working class, it seems apt that 80 years on, a community group is striving to do the same on the estate that bears his name.
Yes, there is a stigma, but quite rightly so. The BBC documentary highlighted chronic poor education, poverty, bad health, lack of ambition, and poor decisions. Tony Blair had it right, education, education, education – that is the way forward.
The BBC documentary showed a 16 year old who had no job but celebrated when she got her own house for her baby (paid for by the taxpayer of course). There was also a woman who had a talent for craft but decided to give away everything she did for free (no wonder she is not richer than she is). Another person hated going to school (no wonder that person will be relegated to a life of low-paid work whilst living in the UK’s most deprived estate).
Everything Lansbury Matter have said is the wrong approach. If people are unhealthy there should not be activity centres, there should be a drive to eat healthy food (it is just as cheap as unhealthy food). If people do not want to stay in Lansbury Park for the rest of their live there should be a drive to go to school to learn.
Annemarie Bridgeman I praise you. You are right. Pushing your children to have an education is the right solution. Unfortunately Caerphilly Council is worse at managing a comprehensive school than Basil Fawlty is at managing a hotel, but if you can avoid St Martin’s school there are some good schools in Cardiff. The council may pay for transport costs for your children to get there everyday.
The solution is easy: go to school, get qualifications, attend university, and step into a job paying £25000 per annum before working your way up the ladder until you are earning £100000 per annum. Easy! All it takes is ambition, commitment, and a little bit of work.
Lansbury matters taking the wrong approach. …its about inequalities and the communities needs. There are far more root problems here than just going to school and getting an education. …..of course that is key.
Why should lansbury not have what other estates have …..for example we don’t even have a football pitch. Where neighbouring wards have 6. Lansbury has a voice and fully intend to use it. Community led regeneration is the most effective way forward.
Correct, Correct, Correct. But; Ensure you take over the priorities as a group, and don`t leave the lead to be maintained by the FAILED Community First Organisation on the Estate. You and the residents know best, Prove it!!!!!!
It is about inequality but that inequality is purely solved through decent education and the hard work of the individuals. Inequality is not solved by continual council handouts.
The problem at Lansbury Park is the individuals living on the estate. People should be at school working towards qualifications and degrees, not getting busy between the sheets to get their own council house when still a teenager. People should be entrepreneurial by using their own talents start a business, not giving away everything they do for free. See, the whole mindset of people in that programme was wrong. No wonder they live in relative poverty in one of the UK’s most deprived areas.
Moving on to the mindset of Lansbury Matters: football pitches, community centres, various classes, and nonsense talk about having the things other people have (jealousy essentially) misses the point. Castle View is an acceptable, relatively wealthier area, however, there is no football pitches, classes, nor activities being held for the people. The people of the estate work hard at school to be able to start higher-paying careers with job security. Another example is Hendredenny, the estate there is similar to Castle View but there are no football pitches and community centres. Hendredenny has a similar mantra to Castle View. A simple look at the number of people attending further education, or have decent O-levels/GCSEs on these estates is clear evidence education matters in preventing deprivation.
Lansbury Matters needs to forget facilities, or obsessing about the colour grey, Lansbury Matters should be encouraging every adult without a qualification in Lansbury Park to attend night classes. Lansbruy Matters should be there encouraging every child in Lansbury Park to attend school to end up either with an apprenticeship, or at university studying for a useful degree (think studying to become a doctor). Lansbury Matters should be an organisational group to organise bus journeys to job centres, to colleges for training, and to the better schools outside Caerphilly – it should not become the begging arm for people in Lansbury Park who are not helping themselves.
Think of Billy Elliot, all of the miners chipped in the very little they had (they were all on strike and starving, remember) to send Billy away to ballet academy to learn. Whilst it is not exactly the same in Lansbury Park, the general principle is identical. All of the residents should be grouping together to provide every child with a decent education to boost the job chances of the children. I am certain a community group could manage to organise educational trips (think the free Museums in London, not Barry Island), and transport to better schools for the children.
I deplore the moves of Lansbury Matters to turn Lansbury Park into an even bigger charity case than it already is. All of this constant begging for useless facilities and football pitches will only better the happiness of people in Lansbury Park but will still leave the estate drowning in poverty, under-achievement, and stigma. The council should provide no help to Lansbury Park until the people of Lansbury Park prove they are ready to help themselves. In the TV programme only Annemarie Bridgeman had the right attitude.
Excuse me but I do have a degree….not all people have the best start in life. We get no money from anywhere, only fundraising. Quick to judge like yourself that is negativity which brings bad stigma. We work for free so how can you say we want handouts. What ward is castle view.
As for trips to Barry Island that was not Lansbury Matters it was a time banking event- Community First.
We embrace our community. We know our neighbours, do you? We have a community to work with….you have no idea!
Mr `Horrible` Oracle is simlpy saying what I have said in a nutshell, and have been saying since your issues hit the TV Michelle,
“Correct, Correct, Correct. But; Ensure you take over the priorities as a group, and don`t leave the lead to be maintained by the FAILED Community First Organisation on the Estate. You and the residents know best, Prove it!!!!!!
Thank you. Your reply was concisely written and to the point. That’s what I brought up today when I was speaking with the First Minister -Carwyn Jones today
I also spoke concisely….let’s hope today has gone exactly that way, because Head of Community First was also there.
It’s on BBC Wales Online.
Whilst you have one or two very strong and inspired, active, members in your group, you actually need to get a couple of outsiders to work with you and to help support your aims and objectives, never forget that politicians you are speaking to have already had all the opportunity in the world, millions of pounds of taxpayers money, and all the best ( so called) professional experience, AND STILL FAILED THE LANSBURY COMMUNITY. If they know best why have their efforts so far not help solve the poverty issues of this community?. Why, with all the project staff of your Community First Office, have THEY not help solve the problems of poverty in your community?
Do not be fooled by sweet talk from those who have so far failed you, a new approach is needed and only you and your residents can lead the fight back.
Community First Managment will feel the need to keep a firm hold on what happens by way of projects, interventions, and any othe taxpayer funded activity, on this estate, IT KEEPS THEM IN EMPLOYMENT. they will be there at every turn you make, if you let them.
What should happen is that CCBC and the Welsh Assembly should undertake a forensic value for money assessment of the last five years ( at least) activities and the spending priorities during that time of the Lansbury Community First Office. Only then will future mistsakes be avoided, and to prevent ratepayers money being tossed to the wind by CF without any real scrutiny of what they do, why they do it and what their projects achieve
13 years in Westminster and a never-ending spree in Cardiff Bay, yet Labour has still not managed to improve Lansbury Park. Actually, Lansbury Park has fallen down the tables to be one of the most deprived areas in the whole of the UK. The situation has been made worse by the Labour Party….the party whose banner you stood under at an election.
Lansbury Park residents need to go to school, achieve qualifications, and find a decent job. Stop demanding the council help you out. The council should not help out.
Of course children need to go to school I agree! However there are many factors which may influence this. Whoever people vote for. It’s their choice. We carry on regardless building on what we already have.
Caerphilly Town Twyn Community Centre have just spend thousands of pounds on three TV monitors, the mystery is; Where did the money come from??????
Michelle, you mention ‘we get no money from anywhere’. Well why should you get money from anywhere? Why should those who don’t contribute to society through tax (or by working, those on minimum wage jobs earning below the personal allowance are much more respectable than those too lazy to work at all) get anything at all? Why should the money I pay in tax be distributed to those who were too lazy to work hard at school?
I was irate when watching the Week In, Week Out programme. It’s nice to see that my hard earned money has been spent on making sure an irresponsible 15 year old girl is given a council house.
Every person in the UK is lucky enough to be given a free education – why should they, or anyone else expect more?
The whole mantra of this Lansbury Park group is ‘we want, we want, we want’. Well I, a taxpayer, want you to get a job and fund it yourselves!
My personal money is my information. I speak on behalf of a community who want Social Justice, i’m sure you read that part. What better to do with my education than to influence change. Do you this we want!! We want CCBC to stop working on interventions that are not effective. If anything we are asking for less. The money being poured in already won’t change. Regeneration is a positive way forward.
Please! Caerphilly Council should cut ALL funding to Lansbury Park that other estates do not get. That is, only fund the roads, bin collections, and street lights as the council do in Castle View or Hendredenny to name two estates as a comparison.
The council have put in place the channel for regeneration: SCHOOL! I cannot help it if there are people in Lansbury Park who are too busy in the bedroom to not have time in the classroom. What was the statistic in the BBC programme? 60% of Lansbury Park residents are single mothers? SHOCKING!
You react by way of generlisation in respect to the `want something for nothing brigade`, This group in Lansbury Park Estate are highlighting the failure of the ratepayer funded interventions you are so against, to this extent you are on the same hymn sheet, Millions of pounds have been wasted on such useless projects on this estate by the Community First, public funded group, ( Lead coordinators? Caerphilly Council who hold all the cards in respect to Community First) AND THEY HAVE NOT WORKED, YOU ARE CORRECT.
But, you do not give this residents group any credit for NOT sitting on their hands and doing nothing, they are infact doing something to better their community.
The fault rests with The Community First Group, they have a spending stream which has allowed them to WASTE millions of pounds of tax payers money over recent years, on unispired intervention projects, resulting in this estate firmly holding onto their poverty awards.
What this group of residents really need to do if they are serious about helping themselves is to ensure they take over the mangement of The Community First Office. form a Community First Management Group of residents from the estate, then consult with Colleges, large and small companies ( Employers) form liason working groups with them, identify training opportunities for now and the future for the younger generations on the estate. Ditch the political gimmicks, (there are no votes in this process) and ensure day by day that Community First do not wrestle back control, WHICH IS WHAT THEY WILL TRY YO DO.
Your options are NOT options for this estate, it needs help and encouragement to raise this entire community out of poverty, a Community incidentally if you need reminding, which sits in the centre of the not so poor Caerphilly Basin.
Because I didn’t talk about my education on the programme, it doesn’t mean I don’t have qualifications.
Really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover! We will challenge you and any other person who brings us down, because we have only just begun. You’ll be eating your words in years to come.
Stigma is needed as it provides a motivational factor to do something. However, let us remember stigma is created by the people living in Lansbury Park who are mostly refusing to do things needed to boost their own position, and people who believe relying on council handouts is an acceptable thing for an estate to do.
Spare the nonsense about not having the best start in life, primary education is free, secondary education is free, and university has no upfront fees (someone who studying for a fantastic degree to bring in an annual salary of £100k will easily be able to pay back all student debt, and people who do not use their degree do not have to pay back anything). People need to be encouraged to love school.
You paint Lansbury Park as the only community there is, however, this is wrong. I know my neighbours, I have had parties with them, we chat over a cup of tea, we chat in the garden, and the street is friendly. The big difference is we all chose to attend university, or follow through on training to have a skilled job with reasonable job security. With education comes a good job, with a good job comes money, and with money comes less deprivation and poverty. It is not rocket science!
You did talk about your education. You always talk about that degree you have in environmental health whenever you have an opportunity. It is as if you are the only person on the planet with a degree and having that degree makes you right. However, that degree is not being put to good use (you do not respond to all of the points I raise, and continually fail to challenge the emphasis I place on education). Ask yourself this: how many people in Lansbury Park have a degree? I bet very few. Further, how many children growing up in Lansbury Park are encouraged by their parents to go to school and work hard to become a top doctor? I bet very few. That is a problem! It should be the opposite of that.
Community First and Lansbury Matters are mostly the same: a pointless organisation aiming to compete to be the begging arm of the estate. Promote the right things if you want to change Lansbury Park.
So, to sum up, the old community centre has been demolished.
I am struggling to find anything else of material enhancement, or plans for personal development in this article, at all.
So the main step forward is to include two members of the community on a minor Council Committee, without voting powers.
Seems to me unless the Community decides to form a group, strong enough to control the lack of ambition of the Community First organisation on the estate, NOTHING WILL ALTER and the estate will still figure at the top of the lists of areas of severe deprivation, which initself, is a contridiction of the spirit of some of the community, and that`s a great pity. the experiences of Community First on this estate ( for years) is a perfect example of the tail wagging the dog, it is time for the dog to start wagging its own tail.