Southbury Art Trail_7
Ayfer orhan_POLITICIAN
Ayfer Orhan is a long-term Ponders End resident and former councillor with deep personal and professional ties to the area. She served on the council from 2006 to 2018, after first being elected in 1998 as the first Turkish Cypriot councillor in Enfield, and held cabinet positions overseeing education, children’s services, and libraries. Her work focused on access, representation, and safeguarding, ensuring residents - especially children - had a voice, adequate services, and opportunities. Ayfer places particular importance on libraries as community hubs, on children’s assemblies to foster participation in civic life, and on housing and infrastructure projects that strengthen the social fabric of Ponders End. Her approach is shaped by her upbringing as a migrant child in council housing, her personal experience navigating bureaucracy for her family, and a belief in proactive, accountable representation. She emphasizes the transformative power of education and information, advocating for young people to understand and exercise their civic and social influence. Beyond politics, she now channels her energy into writing and poetry as tools for consciousness-raising and community engagement, reflecting her lifelong commitment to empowering others and ensuring their voices are heard.
This is Southbury Art Trail
(click here to view additional sculptures)‘This Is Southbury Art Trail’ is a new creative placemaking initiative celebrating the Southbury and Ponders End neighbourhood shaped by community, resilience and industry. The new public art trail weaves together 3D portraits, poetry, and local voices to honour Southbury’s identity and bring everyday stories into the public realm.
DYSPLA, an award-winning art studio in Enfield, was commissioned by Enfield Council to deliver this innovative digital art and 3D sculptural project working with 30 community members, to shape this bold new public art trail and offers a wonderful opportunity for local people to come together and shape who they are, where they live and how their work is shaping the area.
The 3D digital art trail is approximately 1 km long, stretching from Southbury Road, along Kingsway and culminating on Queensway. This project is part of Shaping Southbury — a public realm and community engagement programme being delivered by Enfield Council’s Journeys and Places team and supported by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
