Steve Coles

I have lived in Merton since 2000, first in Morden and then in Raynes Park, and my wife and I have raised our two boys here over the last 18 years. My working life has almost entirely been spent in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector – in the areas of social housing, homelessness, addictions recovery, health inequality, and youth work – at local, regional and national levels. I am an experienced board member and leader, having held numerous trustee, director, chair and CEO positions. I currently have a portfolio career of various roles, including founding and managing an award-winning small business which is restoring habitats for nature and biodiversity in Derbyshire.

I am part of The Salvation Army’s Raynes Park Community Church and have served on the leadership team of the church for much of the last 15 years. I have a degree in Human Cybernetics from the University of Reading and an MBA from Imperial College, London, and have been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts since 2012. I joined the Green Party in 2019, and want to see people and planet flourish. At a local level, that means good quality and genuinely affordable housing, vibrant green spaces, clean air, excellent public transport, and the provision of community resources for all. Nationally and internationally, that means addressing the climate crisis as a matter of urgency, which will also entail addressing gross inequality and the unjust, racist nature of climate change, and committing to a much more peaceful, collaborative international order, free of weapons of mass destruction.

Pippa Maslin

Born in the Philippines to a Filipina and a Briton, I was brought to the St Helier ward in 1977 and, after living in different parts of the country, returned in 2013.

A state secondary school English teacher for 13 years, and then a media arts university tutor and carer for my father whilst undertaking a PhD, I am now the policy and campaigns lead at a local Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisation which aims to increase choice, control and independence.

With strong roots in the area and 13 years of local activism, I am driven to help others and play my part in our community. For example, I:

• campaigned to save services at St Helier Hospital and against Merton Council’s cuts to adult social care;
• worked with neighbours to beat down a massive Major Works bill from Clarion, and am now challenging unreasonable service charges;
• created and led a successful petition to Merton Council to declare a climate emergency and review its current carbon reduction plans to help limit global warming – going on to work with the Council, as part of a voluntary group of residents, to create a climate action plan;
• collaborate with a grassroots group that lobbies for improvements in infrastructure for walking, wheeling and cycling in the borough;
• actively oppose planning applications that fail to address the needs of the community;
• have attended and organised numerous litter picks;
• belong to Merton Friends of the Earth, sit on the committee for Friends of Morden Park, and try to support Friends of Morden Recreation Ground when I can;
• attend community liaison meetings with the local police and at Baitul Futuh Mosque.

I was the Green Party’s Mitcham and Morden candidate for the General Election in 2019 and 2024, as well as the Green Party’s London Assembly candidate for Merton and Wandsworth in 2021 and 2024, and I came a strong second in the St Helier ward by-election in 2024. I really hope to become one of Merton’s first Green Councillors this May.

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Benjamin Smith

I’ve lived in Merton since 2019. I previously worked as stage manager on large-scale theatre productions in the UK and further afield. More recently, I’ve taken a role in an independent business in South West London, where I’m also the environmental lead. In addition, I have a freelance role at Merton College on the edge of the St Helier ward.

In 11 years of Green membership, I’ve stood in a variety of elections and held senior roles in the party. I’ve also been involved in campaign groups such as Sea Shepherd UK, League Against Cruel Sports, and the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, and I remain an ambassador for the White Ribbon Campaign which is focused on ending male violence towards women.

I’ll be a champion for young people who feel like they’re being priced out of the borough, and those standing up against unscrupulous landlords. We’re all getting a raw deal from this Council and, with your votes, we can all benefit from our Council being run for its residents first and foremost.