Episode 3 The Mount: A Welsh Estate

Milford Haven on the Pembrokeshire coast, and this is The Mount Estate.

For the last year, we've been following the lives of some of the people who live here.

It's typical of the council estates which were built during the '60s and '70s.

They all followed an American design, which meant roads

were kept to perimeters, and homes were facing shared areas with no individual gardens.

DOG BARKS

This week - Simone Johnson is back on The Mount

as her hopes of a career in teaching are dashed.

I'm not as energetic as I used to be.

I'm not as full of life and outgoing as I used to be.

I've got very sluggish.

66-year-old Freda has her last wish granted.

One of her wishes before she died was to go out on bikes.

And Tasha is finding life on the estate increasingly difficult.

I asked them to fix my front door, and they haven't, yet again.

Millions of pounds of public money has been spent

regenerating this part of the world.

But a smart yachting marina and tourist retail complex

has brought few job opportunities to the people who live on The Mount.

DOG BARKS

After six years of living away from home,

Simone is back at her mother's.

Here you are, Mum, I'll just show you these.

-What?

-Cards and stuff I got from the school.

You'll have to pass them, because she's sat on my foot.

She has a masters degree in English

and had hoped to become a secondary school teacher,

but she's failed her probationary teaching year.

'Dear Miss Johnson, thank you for teaching me English.

'You taught me so much, and I really enjoyed the lessons.

'Hope you have a lovely time in Wales and take care.

'You'll be sorely missed this side of the border!'

I want to do childcare and working with children,

but then children throwing Sellotape holders across the room... problems going on.

Can you try for junior school age or something?

That's what I'm thinking, I was looking at that.

But to try and do that transition from secondary to primary,

they were saying for every primary school job, there's 10 teachers.

-They're over-staffed, because no-one wants to go into secondary.

-Yeah.

I'm disappointed, because I miss the kids.

Like, I miss them so, so much.

I do miss it and I miss more the independence

and the fact I had to move out of my house.

I had to leave my boyfriend who's now 11 hours away.

I'm going to get to see him twice a month.

Hey, now. Enough.

Now I'm back on the dole on £53 a week.

We've worked out that's...what was it? A fifth.

What I get in a month when you add up the dole, it's a fifth of what I was earning.

I've downsized everything. I've gone from my house to a room.

Simone misses her boyfriend, Pete, who lives more than 10 hours away in Cumbria.

That was the first time we spent together at the university ball.

His birthday when I took him to Manchester

to see Wigan win the finals of the rugby.

Even though we've only been together a year,

it's nice to see how much we have changed so much.

And I think it's one of the things that's going to hit me the most

is because he's not here, and he's just, like, my best friend.

And not having him here has been a massive impact on my life.

Even though it's only been two weeks and I'm sure I'll get used to it,

but, yeah, it's very hard.

It'll be nice to see him on Monday, and I think...he's going to get a big hug.

Simone has joined her mum and grandmother

at a coffee morning at Hilton House.

-..gone ten rounds.

-That is gross!

-I know.

Hilton House is a council-owned complex on the estate

which provides sheltered accommodation for older people.

The local MP here is Stephen Crabb, a Conservative.

He holds a surgery at the resource centre on The Mount twice a year.

Today, only one person from The Mount has come to see Stephen.

The family you see here are from Milford.

-Thank you very much.

-Bye-bye. Bye, take care.

-Bye.

The outside perception is that it might be an estate full

of single mums, or single young people with alcohol or drug abuse problems.

The truth is this is a mixed community.

We have people here who are working full-time.

You get the whole mixed bag of issues that you might expect

in any working-class community.

I grew up in council housing in the next town along in Haverfordwest.

I grew up in a single parent home, so when I see people from those kind of backgrounds at my surgery,

I have a little bit of understanding of where they're coming from.

After the surgery, centre manager Kathy Grey

talks to Stephen about the problems she sees a lot of here.

Yeah, no, community spirit here is still like it is. It's hard now.

The 16-year-olds to 18 are a major problem. They don't fix into a box.

They can't claim unemployment benefit until they're 18.

The expectation is they're in some sort of educational training, if not in work.

But nobody will pay for them.

They're not getting any money at all, and the family unit's not getting any money,

that's why you've got so many having to try and find a home.

The family says they can't afford to keep them for two years for nothing.

-There's no interim, is there?

-No.

-It's crazy.

There are two blocks of small flats on the estate,

which the council usually allocate to single tenants.

Sometimes these are people with unsettled and troubled lives.

They may not stay long.

No problem, I'll show you the flat, no problem.

Bradley has just moved into one of the flats.

This is what they expect an 18-year-old to live in.

This is the kitchen.

Then you have the bedrooms in The Mount Estate.

That's it.

My mum couldn't afford to keep me there,

because I got four other little brothers living with me.

So I had to move out somewhere.

I went in a hostel then and stayed there for two months.

I got this place on The Mount Estate, and it was the only place I could get.

I get benefits of about £110 every two weeks.

I'm in college at the moment studying carpentry.

I've just done my NVQ 1 and just qualifying now for my NVQ 2.

Hopefully, when I qualify for my NVQ 3,

I should be a qualified carpenter. I can see me doing really well in the future.

I don't see me living here for very long.

Not at all. I want to make something out of my life.

I don't want to be just, you know...

I want to get an apprenticeship and make my family proud.

I want to join the Army, hopefully.

Hopefully, I want to go in the Welsh Guards.

So, hopefully, I'll do that in the future.

My dad's in jail, yeah. For a long time.

I get woke up at three o'clock in the morning,

people drinking upstairs, downstairs.

It's not great. You've just got to put up with it, you know.

My mum's not happy with me living here. No.

She wants me to come back home.

Just the fact that it was Larch Road, Mount Estate.

I just said to her I'm not coming back home,

because I want to be independent, I want to do everything myself.

I don't want to rely on my mum for the rest of my life.

Bradley isn't the only one on The Mount trying to turn his life around.

22-year-old Tasha is also struggling

to cope with difficult circumstances.

This is the hallway. The front door.

We lock it.

This... Ah! ..is a window. Things falling over.

Boarded up.

I lived in the hostel for a year-and-a-half.

And then they offered me a flat in The Mount.

I looked at it, and it looked OK.

I thought, yeah, I'll decorate it, like, it'll be OK.

Got a nice patio for my son.

And I took it and tried to do it up.

That's the little boy's room, but it's a mess.

The first year-and-a-half was OK.

It was sorted, it was quite tidy in here.

But after people coming in, and they're meant to be your friends.

Meant to be your friends. And they don't care.

When you ask them to go,

they don't bother going, because they're all wrecked up

and they're all arguing with you.

Then you have to go mad and go crazy at them

and just hit them or something.

They smash windows, they litter everywhere.

My son's three.

I can't have him back now because of all the stuff that goes round here.

I'm on the sick now because of all the stuff that goes on

with my ex-partner and my son, I'm on the sick.

I'm depressed.

I'm really not well, like, and every time I phone the police,

they arrest me, because I get crazy, I want someone to move me off here.

I've been to the doctor several times.

I've got support workers and stuff, and I'm going to get off here, like.

I want to live in my own house with my son

and be happy, but no.

It's several weeks since Simone moved back,

and despite applying for all sorts of jobs, she's still unemployed.

I've got so much stuff to sort out. I got to do my CVs and everything.

I've got to meet this woman next week

to be able to sit down and create one.

I don't really know what I'm doing with it at all.

I do feel very alone when he's not around and I said the other day,

he's kind of like my best friend.

And I don't feel as though I know many people down here any more.

Even though, obviously, I've got my mum, things haven't been easy.

I'm like eating stuff that I wouldn't normally eat.

I'm not really full of fruit and veg like I normally would be.

I'm not as energetic as I used to be.

I'm not as full of life and outgoing as I used to be,

I've kind of got very sluggish.

And it's starting to take a toll on my weight, which obviously

sets me back into anxiety and worrying and panicking.

Yeah, I kind of expected it a little bit later on,

but I can feel The Mount starting to hit back on me.

It's starting to change my lifestyle in a way

I don't really want it to be,

and I'm not quite sure how to get out of that.

Trina moved onto the estate two years ago when she was pregnant.

Her mother also lives in Milford Haven.

..on the phone to you.

All right, then, Mummy. I'll talk to you soon.

I didn't realise I was pregnant for four months.

As soon as I found out, I moved straight into the hostel

and then got this place.

When I found out I was pregnant,

I told him, he tried getting back with me,

and I was like, no, I don't want to.

Basically, so... He's run away, he's run to London.

I won't let her call him Dad... because a part-time dad is a no dad.

She doesn't know who he is. She calls me Dad sometimes.

I did struggle at first, but I had my mum helping me.

But now it's just a walk in the park.

We have a routine, we get up, we have breakfast, she has a bath first,

I get her dressed, and that's basically all we do all day.

She's part of my routine now.

When I make my dinners, I make two, or one and a dot.

Always make sure she's got everything first.

But then, once I make sure she's got everything, I'm left with nothing!

That's the way. Got to suffer the consequences once you've made them!

Hi.

Hiya.

I started off with absolutely nothing in here,

just a bed by here and a TV.

And then, my mother knew people and knew what situation I was in

and helped me out.

Trina's mother, Tracy,

runs a charity called Patch at a local church.

Families referred here are given free vouchers which they can exchange

for food, clothes and household goods.

It was quite shocking, actually, to find out that we've had

well over 10% of our clients are from The Mount.

But we did start at Milford and we've expanded

to the whole of Pembrokeshire, so that may be one of the reasons why.

The charity is staffed by volunteers.

It offers five-day food parcels to people

who have no other means of feeding themselves.

I'll just settle for that, that's all right.

You can have more than that.

Just take whatever you need.

Tom lives on The Mount, and his life has hit a rough spot.

Honestly, we get given so much that it's no hassle at all.

There's three oil refineries right next to us.

I'm a pipe fitter, 20 years in the trade, and just can't get anything.

My last job was in Holland.

Had to leave the country just for three months for some work.

We just went to see if we could get our...well, my partner's working tax sorted out,

because it's all been stopped since she started this job.

Well, it's been stopped since I actually moved in with her

and we started claiming as a joint couple.

So we've had nothing to live on for the last five weeks.

I shouldn't be, but I'm fussy!

It's put us in a terrible position.

We've been digging up potatoes out of the garden that aren't ready.

You know, things like that,

just going round to friends, asking for this and that.

It's embarrassing, really. Coming here...

you don't want to be doing that when you're used to working.

-All right, thanks very much.

-Bye!

-Cheers, see you later.

I've had a blister on my toe, and half my skin's come off!

So, I'm just like... It's really sore!

Simone's boyfriend, Pete, has made the 10-hour trip from Cumbria

to spend a few days with her.

It's nothing to eat, it's just a plaster.

Please don't step on my toe. Well, apart from the toe,

things are going quite well!

It's hardly falling off, Simone!

This is what you get for doing sport and things together as a couple.

Someone gets injured!

We went for a game of squash and we'd already gone through

the whole rigmarole this morning that this one's all the sporty person

and I thought he'd get too competitive.

-All good.

-Yes.

Still looking for jobs, but obviously starting to try and get up your way.

Obviously, trying to look anywhere where there's going to be

a big intake of jobs, so Cardiff, Manchester, Chester.

Hopefully, something will come up. Fingers crossed.

If not, we've got the weather down here, so it's fine!

-Make the most of the summer.

-Wait till Christmas.

-Yes!

Then it'll be Christmas and it'll be "I want to go now. I want to move."

-Get snowed in down here.

-Yes.

All too soon, Pete's visit is over.

And Simone is left to carry on the thankless task of trying to find a job.

For Tasha, things are starting to improve.

But she's waiting for the council to finish the repairs to her flat.

They fixed the back door the other day.

They were meant to fix my front door but they haven't. Yet again.

Then, Tasha spots a council van parked nearby.

-Excuse me, what house are you doing?

-Sorry?

-What house are you doing?

-I've finished.

-Are you doing my front door?

I'm a plumber, not a carpenter.

My sink in the bathroom is blocked.

-Can you unplug it?

-I can do, if you want.

-Thank you.

-There you go.

-Thank you.

Ta-ra.

With the yard swept and the sink unblocked,

Tasha can now join her boyfriend, watching TV.

Some months later, she found a job and now works part-time.

66-year-old Freda is losing her fight with cancer.

One of her last wishes was to ride a motorbike.

I used to be a biker before I joined the Army.

And the wife's brother used to be a biker as well.

So we all like bikes.

And one of her wishes was, before she died, was to go out on bikes.

She couldn't get on the back of a motorbike, so we got a trike.

-Right, OK?

-We'll go for a sleep now.

-She's tired now.

-I'm not surprised. It's that vehicle.

Come on. OK?

Freda's family are there in force to support their mum.

She was give six to nine months to live, then she was given two weeks,

and now they've said this will be the last weekend.

Very sad, but it's nice to see a big smile on her face.

Do you want to come indoors before you collapse here?

-Let's get you in and have a nice cup of tea.

-Lovely to have met you.

-I enjoyed it.

-It was beautiful.

-You're welcome.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

It was the first thing she asked for, wasn't it?

-Cup of tea?

-Thank you very much.

Freda and her husband, Ken, moved to The Mount five years ago.

When I first moved here, I was a bit apprehensive.

But the people are so nice round here.

There is parts where it's a bit rougher,

but this area, I've had no problem at all.

Everybody knows everybody. It's a nice little knit community.

I don't feel frightened at all, or threatened.

You get one or two drunks, but most of the time, they'll talk to you.

If you see somebody coming up with a hoodie, like, down in London,

you think, what are you going to do next?

But up here, you usually say, "Hello, how are you going?"

Jane's daughter, Simone, still has no job.

And Jane is wondering what the future might hold for her.

"Follow-up call from B for money news." That's Simone's.

I wonder who B is.

-Simone!

-Yes.

-The bottom of your star sign says,

"Follow-up call from B for money news."

-Do you know anyone with the letter B?

-No.

Right.

Just reading my sister's. It's a bit of a laugh.

"Host a sparkling get-together." Yeah, right(!)

She couldn't organise one in a brewery!

Oh, dear Lord!

Simone, Sian's idea of a get-together

is throwing a couple of sausages on the barbie.

Smoking!

But Sian IS holding a party, as predicted by her horoscope.

They're ready to eat.

Should be a barmaid. Get a job up the Horse and Jockey, love.

Yeah, the diet's going really well(!)

No hotdogs(!)

Freda passed away a week after the bike ride.

-Good family.

-Oh, yes.

Freda had a great sense of humour.

She liked a laugh.

The fact there was laughter at this funeral, and that's so important,

because this lady, I think, loved the sound of laughter.

And you've shared that laughter with everyone here today.

We've also shared our sadness.

Earth to earth, ashes to ashes,

dust to dust.

Trusting in the infinite mercy of God

and the victory of Christ, our Lord.

I miss her like mad.

Time...

I wouldn't say so much at night, it's during the day, it's so quiet.

It's why I leave the radio on.

And I'm thinking of getting a dog now. Again.

That's about it.

I definitely won't move anywhere.

I'm here till the day I die... cos she's already booked a grave for me!

But that's...that's life, isn't it?

Simone is still looking for work

and she's sent off dozens off application forms.

I had an interview come through, and it said...

It was with a really top company. And it would have been absolutely fantastic.

But... Yeah.

It turned out that it was unpaid. And for six months.

Unpaid, living in London. It just wasn't happening.

I couldn't ask my boyfriend to give up his job to support me

in something that I might not even get a job out of at the end, cos it was an internship.

It just seemed as though the fact that cos it's such a big company,

they can just take on people as volunteers,

and it's no loss of money to them.

So...yeah. Nothing great. A bit of a letdown.

It's nice being back with family, but there's nothing down here.

I've had one of the bosses down here who I know so well,

and he apologised to me, because he couldn't give me a job,

cos he had to take on the boss's granddaughter.

Even my friend, who owns a bar, she couldn't even take me on and she's having to hire her family,

and the only reason they're working there is they're unpaid.

So the sooner I get away from here and the sooner I move back...

and even if it's just into a house with Pete until I can get something,

it'd be better than anything this place is ever going to offer.

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