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Who we are

Note: – emails to contact@loughtonresidents.co.uk will be forwarded to the relevant Cllr.

Over the years, LRA has also had many people as Councillors and Executive Committee Members. Here they are.

Our current Excecutive Commitee and Cllrs are:

Philip Abraham was a Town Cllr for Alderton ward and served as Town Mayor for 2017-18. He is now a member of the Executive Committee. He is married with two daughters. Born in India, he has lived in Loughton since 2000. He believes that LRA is doing a great job protecting our town, its green surroundings and improving quality of life in Loughton, but that new jobs must be created for young people - there's more potential to become a vibrant enterprise area, without losing our green spaces. Philip is involved in promoting business between UK and India. He is the vice-chair and co-founder of British South India Council of Commerce. 

Ian Allgood Email is a District Cllr for Forest ward and Town Cllr for St John's ward.

Arash Ardakani Email is a District Cllr for Fairmead ward.

Roger Baldwin Email is a District Cllr for Forest ward. He has lived in the area most of his life. For the past 15 years he has taught maths and economics, latterly as a supply teacher. He’s married with two young daughters and his interests are history, education, industry, business evolution, environment and he’s keen on DIY.

Michael Benbow Email is a member of the LRA Executive Committee. He has lived in Loughton since 1992. For 30 years he was a Chartered Industrial Designer of engineered durable consumer products, mostly high volume.  He has been in business since 1990 and works locally now, and was a Governor at Staples Road Junior School 1999-2007 and Roding Valley High School 2006 -2011. He married Christine in 1981 and their daughter Annette born in 1994 was a 2012 Olympics London Ambassador. He has been LRA's Election Agent since 2004 and has led our election activities since 2009.  He says 'All residents enjoy living in this great town and working together as the non-political LRA is our best way to protect and improve what we value about our town'.  His recreation includes cycling, hill and mountain walking, being outside and town improvement. 

Eva Blasco Email is Loughton Life editor and a member of the LRA Executive Committee. She grew up in Woodford Green and, after 13 years in Buckhurst Hill, moved to Loughton. Eva works at the Ministry of Justice and enjoys walking in the forest, gardening and amateur astronomy and believes that the abundance and variety of things that Loughton has to offer makes it the perfect place to live.

Rose Brookes Email is a District Cllr for Buckhurst Hill East and Whitebridge ward, and Town Cllr for Whitebridge ward. She has taught in independent and state schools, and also in China. She now works at the National Portrait Gallery.

Laura Blake Email is Membership Secretary and is a member of the Executive Committee.

Tessa Cochrane Emailis a member of the LRA Excutive Commitee and previously a Town Cllr for Forest ward and District Cllr for Fairmead (2010-14). She has lived in Loughton for over fifty years, grew up in Fairmead ward and attending Hereward School. She has had several jobs after bringing up her family, including teaching assistant and clerk to the governors at Staples Road Schools. She has a particular interest in special needs in education, as her son has learning difficulties. She loves animals, and does quite a bit of volunteer work in the Cancer Research shop and helping with pony riding for the disabled on the Roding meadows.

Barbara Cohen Email is a District Cllr for Buckhurst Hill East and Whitebridge ward and has lived in Loughton for 20 years. Although understanding the need for more housing, she is keen to keep as many of our green spaces as possible, and loves the traditional feel of Loughton. For her, safety for the public is paramount and she appreciates how upsetting parking issues can be and that potholes need to be reported for attention. She appreciates our beautiful trees, flowers and greenery that makes Loughton such a pretty place to live in. She is friendly and approachable and willing to help people whenever she can.

Susan Creevy Email is LRA's Minutes Secretary and represents LRA on the Epping Forest Consultative Committee.  She is married with three grown children and has lived in Loughton for over 50 years.  Susan is keen to preserve and improve the character of the town and protect our open spaces.  She particularly enjoys walking in the forest, local history, community events, theatre and concerts.

Mark Dalton Email is a member of the Excutive Commitee and previously a Town Cllr for Roding ward. His family moved to Loughton in 1976. He is married with two sons. He runs the distribution of LRA’s newsletter Loughton Life. After redundancy in 2008 from electrical wholesaling, he now works as a self-employed general handyman. He is a member of the Wine Society and a founder member of the Clore Tikva School Foundation. He is also a “Friend of the Classic Malts” and a “Guardian of the Glenlivet”. He is now the Community Handy person for Voluntary Action Epping Forest, available to do small repair jobs for the over-60’s in privately-owned properties, as well as fitting keysafes and other security products.

Carol Davies Email is a Town Cllr for Fairmead ward and was town Mayor for 2016-17. She joined LRA after she led a campaign to save Young Learner’s Nursery when Epping Forest College decide to build on it.

Wendy Dodd Email is a Town Cllr for St Mary's ward.

Trevor Downing Email has been a Town Cllr for Forest ward since 2012, and has been a member of the Planning & Licencing Committee most of that time. He has enjoyed living in Smarts Lane for 28 years, the Forest and the environment of Loughton. Born in Yarmouth, he has studied and worked in Central America, Edinburgh, Cambridge and Leeds before settling in Loughton. He is a keen cyclist, and enjoys the London and local arts, theatre and music scenes. For 12 years, he was director of a global maritime information company, and is now a maritime consultant.

He has campaigned (successfully) for residents parking in Forest ward, and is now looking into the through-traffic problem, in particular over-sized lorries in the narrow roads of the area.

Steve Eaton Email is a member of the Executive Committee, our website manager, and produces the Loughton News email for members. He previously worked as a project manager for Stagecoach and Post Office headquarters in London, and in the financial services industry. He is enthusiastic about Loughton’s lifestyle, history, community spirit and proximity to the forest.


Sebastian Fontenelle Email is a Town Cllr for Fairmead ward.

Alan Fricker Email is a Town Cllr for Alderton ward.

Anne Harriman Email is a member of the Executive Committee involved with organising the second hand books and the rota for LRA's stall in the Farmers Market on Loughton High Road. As a food scientist she worked for two years in St Vincent under the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) scheme before joining a Flavour House in Walthamstow. She has lived in Walthamstow, Wanstead and Woodford before moving to Loughton with her family in 1994.

Stephen Harriman Emailis a Town Cllr for St John's ward.

Les House Email is a Town Cllr for Debden Ward.

Howard Kauffman Email is a District Cllr for St John's ward. He was born in Hackney. Since 2005 he has lived with his wife and 3 sons in Church Lane. He has worked in the commercial property industry since 1976 and has experience of planning and finance. His career has involved many regeneration projects and he’s very interested in conservation, ecology, local & national history.

Will Kauffman Email is a District Cllr for Fairmead ward.

Chris Kent Email is on the LRA Executive Committee

Kin-Wan Lee Email is a Town Cllr for Forest ward.

Lance Leonard Email is a member of the Executive Committee  and was District Cllr for Alderton ward (2010-2014). He has lived in the ward since 1981. His varied working life has been in newspaper, television and advertising businesses. In his free time, he enjoys gardening.

Neil MacKinnon Email is a Town Cllr for Broadway ward.

Louise Mead Email is District Cllr for Fairmead ward. She grew up locally and did A levels at Epping Forest College; she also studied counselling and management there. She lives in Loughton, and is a social worker and has also supported people with learning disabilities.

Raj Minhas Email is a Town Cllr for  St Mary's ward.

Miriam Murphy Email is LRA’s Honorary Treasurer and a member of the Executive Committee. She lived in Loughton for forty years and trained and qualified as an accountant working for a firm of chartered accountants, for BUPA and BT plc. the latter managing international consortia financing for satellites and subsea cables for fifteen years. She left BT for a career break, got married, and acquired an MBA whilst volunteering for a catholic charity in London. Besides being a mother to one son, she acts as treasurer to the Epping Forest HF (walking) Group and has done charity fundraising in the past. Hobbies used to include running, photography and stamp collecting but are now limited to local walks and gardening.


Stella Murphy Email is a Town Cllr for Forest ward. She’s a professional home economist and food Stylist. She has lived in Loughton most of her life and has a grown-up daughter who lives here too. Her job has taken her all over the world working in film and TV, not always to glamorous locations. Stella has served on the local NSPCC committee for over 25 years - the branch has raised considerable sums of money each year through fund raising such as the Annual Summer Lunch with guest speakers, Tennis and Bridge.

Chidi Nweke Email is a District Cllr for Roding ward and is a husband and a father of three young sons. He currently works as a Senior City Inspector at Westminster Council and had been an employee there for the last 10 years. As a highly respected member of staff, he has been at the centre of some high profile cases at Westminster and his work has led to thousands in recovered revenue for the City Council.

Since moving to Loughton with his young family, Chidi has enjoyed and fallen in love with the vibrancy of the town, its open space and the people. Chidi is passionate about maintaining law and order in the community and community integration; he has previously held volunteer positions at the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) and at the Youth Justice Board. He is currently representing LRA at the Local Independent Police Advisory Group and the Essex Police Strategic Independent Advisory Group.  He holds a Masters degree in Environmental Management and a first degree in Criminology.

Joyce Obaseki Email is a Town Cllr for St John's ward.

Michael Owen Email is a District Cllr for Forest ward and a Town Cllr for St John's ward. He is married with 2 young step children who attend Staples Road Primary School, and a new born son. He grew up in Surrey and upon graduation in 2002 started a career in finance, moving to Central London where he spent the next 13 years.

Michael is currently the Head of Foreign Exchange sales for the UK and Ireland at a bank in the city and moved to Loughton permanently in 2015. In his spare time he enjoys numerous sports including Golf, Cycling and playing Football for a local team. Michael loves the open spaces that Loughton has to offer and can often be seen walking the family dog in Epping Forest. He says “When I first moved to Loughton I was taken aback by the beautiful open spaces and thriving local community. I wanted to help protect and build this community and found that the non-political LRA was the best way I could get involved and help us to stand up for what we all love about this town”.

Chris Pond Email is the County Cllr for Loughton (Central), a District and Town Cllr for St John's ward. He was chairman of the Town Council in 1997–98 and Town Mayor in 2004-06 and 2008-09. He devised the LTC blue plaque scheme. He is chairman of the Loughton Historical Society, former vice-chairman of the Hills Amenity Society and former chairman of the Lopping Hall Trustees.


Sheree Rackam Email is a District Cllr for Roding ward.

Jon Riley Email is a Town Cllr for Forest ward.

Mick Stubbings Email is a Town Cllr for Alderton ward. He has lived all his life in Loughton, and for many years in Alderton Ward. Now retired, he worked for London Transport, first buses then trains, on environmental and health & safety issues. He and his wife enjoy walking, painting, playing bowls, playing golf, playing chess and Historical Society evenings.

Ruth Sylvan Emaila Town Cllr for Fairmead ward.


Katie Valentine Email is a Town Cllr for Alderton ward.

John Walker Email is a member of the Executive Committee and is Chairman of the LRA Plans Group. He is a chartered town planner and has over 40 years planning experience in both the public and private sector, handling some of the most controversial developments in the UK. He has regularly participated in Government Planning Policy Review Boards and contributes regularly to planning trade journals. John also advises the National Organisation of Residents' Associations (NORA).

Judith Walker Email is a member of the Executive Committee and makes representations on behalf of the LRAPG on all licensing and street trading applications. Judith is a qualified librarian and has lived in Loughton since 1997. She is also a Girl Guiding District Commissioner for the Walthamstow Area and has been a Brownie leader for over 30 years.

Graham Wiskin Email is a District Cllr for St John's ward.

David Wixley Email is a Town Cllr for Whitebridge ward. He has lived in Loughton since two years old and attended local schools. His varied working life includes over 30 years in the water industry where he developed an interest in staff welfare issues, served as a trade union representative and sat on his company's staff council. Interested in football, he has played for several local clubs and managed one of Loughton Football Club's youth teams for nine years. Other interests include membership of the Loughton & District Historical Society and Epping Forest Heritage Trust. He also enjoys walking and travelling and visiting museums and art galleries.A Town Cllr since 2004, he served as Town Mayor for 2010/11 and was previously a school governor at White Bridge Junior School.

Ceejay Ubah Email is a Town Cllr for Broadway ward.