LOCAL LEADER RESIGNS UNDER CLOUD

She has fought for residents for almost 30 years, campaigning tirelessly to improve lives in a deprived urban community. But the career of Audrey Villas, head of the Arden Estate Tenant Management Organisation Hoxton came to an abrupt halt yesterday, Harriet Shawcross tells us why.

The Hackney native resigned under controversial circumstances, facing allegations of financial mismanagement.

Mrs Villas has been accused of leasing out parts of the Arden Estate without residents’ permission.

They claims are unconfirmed, but the TMO has not registered its accounts with the Financial Services Authority since December 15 2004, fuelling speculation among residents.

This is not the first time Mrs Villas has faced controversy. In the past few months she has received death threats and hate mail from angry residents and has been accused of accepting ‘backhanders’ from Hackney Council.

In an exclusive interview with The Post prior to her resignation she said: “I feel like I have been stabbed in the back by the community. I work so hard here, but you see me as I am. I don’t suck up to anyone, so people get offended. The fact is you can’t please everybody.”

Mrs Villas has weathered worse storms than this. As a schoolgirl in Stoke Newington, she worked three part-time jobs to help support her family, until was forced to leave school at 14. She said: “It seems stupid now, but I had trodden on a rusty nail a few weeks before the final exams, and it had gone septic. I could barely walk, let alone hobble all the way to school, and as we could not afford the bus fare I missed the exams.”

With no possibility of retakes, Mrs Villas was forced to leave full-time education with no qualifications and few prospects.

She fell pregnant at 17, and hastily married her childhood sweetheart. The marriage lasted a year, and at 18 Mrs Villas found herself a divorcee and single mother. “We were far too young,” she said, “He left me when I was five months pregnant, because he was a gambler.” Rather than wallowing in self-pity she carried on working to support her seven siblings. She said: “I’ve always liked helping people, ever since I was a little girl. We’re very close, and we always made time for one another”.

But within a year Mrs Villas was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The strain of supporting her young son had become too much. “I think my body just gave up,” she said, “That’s when I woke up to the fact that you can’t solve everybody’s problems. There’s just one of me and there’s only so much I can do.”

So how would Audrey Villas like to be remembered for her work at the TMO?
“I don’t want high acclaims, or to be praised,” she said, “All I want is for people to say, she tried.”

Mrs Villas refused to comment on the allegations or her reasons for resigning.

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