Pollards Hill

Joan Henry came to the UK from Jamaica in 1979 and since then has had a career helping people. She started work as a Nursing Assistant at Bolingbrook and St George’s Orthopaedic Hospital. Joan then became a part-time Marie Curie Palliative Care support nurse and a part-time volunteer for Victim Support Merton. For most of this time, she was also a Special Constable in the Metropolitan Police.

For the last two years before her retirement in 2011 she worked the night shift for St Martins-in-the-Field, supporting homeless people, washing their clothes, preparing meals, checking cardboard boxes on the street late at nights to ensure they were warm with a hot meal, and helping them to fine appropriate accommodation.

As well as being a mum to three sons, and a grandmother, Joan has fostered 16 children.

Joan became a councillor in 2014 at age 60, and the 58th Mayor of Merton at age 68. In 2019 she joined the Walk for Heroes fundraising from Charing Cross to Canterbury Cathedral and raised over £3,000. In 2023 she took part in the Don’s Local Action Group Sleep-out fundraising activity and raised over £2,000.

Pollards Hill

Born at St George’s Hospital, Ryan Rodrigues has lived almost all his life in Mitcham. He went to St Boniface Primary before heading to Wimbledon College. Ryan lives in Mitcham with his wife, Laurie, and their miniature sausage dog, Hamilton, who you can often spot on Mitcham Common.

Ryan’s parents came to this area from India and Sri Lanka during the civil war. Like so many families who made this community their home, Ryan’s arrived with little but worked hard to build a better life for him and his younger brother. Ryan says, “This community shaped who I am, and I’m proud of its diversity and kindness”.

Ryan was the only student from his school to earn a place at the University of Cambridge and it’s why he now mentors local students to pursue their own ambitions. While at university, Ryan launched a campaign providing food for people experiencing homelessness.

Outside of work, Ryan plays football for the Old Wimbledonians, cheers on Manchester United (like a true South Londoner), and loves music; he first sang with the Merton Youth Jazz Orchestra when he was at school.

Pollards Hill

Martin Whelton is a stalwart of the local community being one of Merton’s longest serving Labour councillors and a Pollards Hill councillor since 2002. Currently he is the Mayor of Merton which includes representing the borough at public events. He was born in Wimbledon and has lived in Mitcham for over 20 years.

He is Chair of the parish council at St Michael’s Catholic Church in Pollards Hill and has been a church lay reader for over 10 years. Martin currently chairs the Mitcham Common Conservators which manages the upkeep and maintenance of the Common. This has included overseeing projects to improve conservation on the common including the restoration of acid grasslands.

He has been involved in the Save Mitcham Police station and campaigned for more bobbies on the best including more community police. As well, Martin has run campaigns to secure a free cashpoint, the extension of 463 bus, opposing bank closures and campaigning against increases to leasehold charges at The Meadows housing estate.

In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, Martin helped set up and run a foodbank in Pollards Hill which supported hundreds of families.

Mitcham and Morden MP

Siobhain has lived in the constituency of Mitcham and Morden her whole life and was elected as the Member of Parliament for Mitcham and Morden in 1997.

Siobhain is renowned as one of the country’s hardest-working MPs, and regularly leads the list of MPs who have written the most letters, taking up thousands of new cases on behalf of constituents every year. She has led a variety of campaigns, including the opening of a new train station at Mitcham Eastfields, saving St Helier Hospital, introducing new community ‘Safer Neighbourhood’ police teams, and tackling graffiti, abandoned cars, vandalism and other anti-social behaviour.

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