“INTIMIDATED” was the word that local councillor for Pentwyn, Cllr Jess Moultrie, used to describe how she felt when she first stepped into the council chamber in City Hall, Cardiff as an elected member.
At the age of just 23, Jess was the youngest member at Cardiff Council following the 2022 local government elections.
“I felt like I shouldn’t belong there and ultimately all I had was making people proud of me – friends, family, those in the community,” she said.
“All that pushed me forwards was that you are doing this for them.”
Jess, now 24, said she has built up her confidence a lot more since then and is beginning to shake off the imposter syndrome that would often grip her.
More recently, Jess was nominated for the young councillor of the year award at the Cllr Awards 2023.
She is involved in a number of causes, including Love Your Period Campaign which aims to end period poverty in Wales; striving for improvements in mental health as a council representative of Cardiff Mind; and trying to make her community a better place – work which has involved turning youngsters away from exploitation.
However, the road to where she is now has not always been straight forward for Jess, who grew up in a council house in Pentwyn.
She said wanting to be a part of Cardiff Mind was heavily influenced by her own experience early on in life.
Jess said: “When I was 15, I was struggling and I did take an overdose myself.
“I always thought of myself as not being able to go past GCSE, I always thought to myself negatively and if I’d passed away that day, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve those things and help bring awareness to issues in Cardiff such as period poverty.
“I am very vocal on talking about mental health, therapy, being able to realise that there is a big issue with mental health when it comes to cost of living, when it comes to anything locally.
“It is something I see as a councillor every day.”
Jess said she had to step up as the eldest of three sisters whilst her mother was going through a divorce and recovering from a hysterectomy after having ovarian cancer.
Jess said: “My mum would go off to work at a law firm and I would look after my sisters over the weekend and I would basically play housewife.
“I would cook, I would clean, but I did it all to help my mum.”
Jess was 16 at the time.
“She is okay now,” said Jess about her mother, who she has always been close to. The family still lives in the same council house in Pentwyn.
It was also at the age of 16 that Jess said she started to gain more of an interest in politics.
She took the subject as an a-level and eventually realised that she was going to join the Labour party.
It wasn’t long after she got more involved in politics that she received a phone call from the MP for Cardiff Central, Jo Stevens, asking her if she would like to learn how to phone canvass.
“They haven’t really got rid of me since,” she said.
When asked what she wanted to help change through politics, Jess answered: “I wanted to fix the challenges and issues that I faced when I was younger.”
Period poverty was one of these issues, and is one that still exists in the city today.
Jess said: “I remember being a very embarrassed going to reception to ask for sanitary products in the toilet.
“I remember friends having to go home from school because they leaked through.
“I have seen friends even use tissue paper and socks because they couldn’t afford the product.”
Molly Fenton started the Love Your Period Campaign when she was an A-level student in Cardiff to end period poverty and the stigma surrounding it for school pupils all over Wales.
Jess added: “For a long time it was just one of those things that I thought ‘it is what it is, you have to just live with it’ and it was only until I met Molly through voluntary work that I realised how important it was and how much of a barrier it could be for young girls going to school.
“It reminded me of all those times I had seen girls miss school because they didn’t have the products or they bled on themselves that day and couldn’t carry on in school because they were embarrassed.
“No one should really have to miss education based on that.”
Research from 2021 shows that 15% of girls in Wales aged 14 to 21 were unable to afford period products at some point and that almost half of girls were embarrassed to talk about their periods.
Jess said her eyes were opened to the seriousness of the situation in Cardiff today when she went out to places like St Mellons Central Library in the summer to help give out free sanitary products.
The young councillor was shocked when she found out how quickly the free sanitary products ran out after they were brought in.
She said: “We have free products in the hubs which is great and I understand in the first year there is going to be hiccups, but they went really fast and I think that was an eye-opener in terms of how much people are struggling and a lot of people felt embarrassed to ask for the free products.
“People were coming to us who were really struggling and they said that sometimes… it’s either a choice of products or the bus to work or actually putting money towards food.”
Case work in her own ward is also something that has kept Jess busy over the past year.
One moment that particularly stood out for her was helping to steer a young person away from exploitation and encouraging them to continue with their education.
“That meant the world to me,” she said.
“Exploitation here is quite bad and this is why I want to push on the leisure centre and make sure it is open.”
Pentwyn Leisure Centre closed during the Covid-19 pandemic and recent plans to reopen it have been met with concern from some residents who feel as though the current proposal would be a downgrade from what they originally had.
The facility will have to be shared with Cardiff Rugby and the swimming pool will be smaller than what it was before.
Members of the public will also only be able to use the 3G pitches during peak times.
Cardiff Council said pressures on the construction industry and rising energy bills have resulted in the initial plans for the leisure centre needing to be reworked.
A new cafeteria and a new hall which has the potential to create an area for padel tennis will also be delivered as part of the proposal.
Jess noted that the topic is controversial and said that she even has dreams about it.
She added: “If you have young people out on the street, they are going to be targeted, so it is something I am very vocal about.
“It gets brought up when we are in public meetings… think of the children and what their perspective is.
“There are always complaints about them hanging about on a specific street, but every time I walk past they are no trouble.
“They just haven’t got anywhere to go.”
The Welsh Government, with the support of Data Cymru, carried out a survey of local government election candidates from the May 2022 elections.
Half of the 1,077 respondents to the survey were aged 60 or over.
About two fifths were aged between 40 and 59 and a tenth were aged between 25 and 39.
The remaining 2% were aged between 18 and 24.
Jess said she has noticed more young people taking the leap into local politics, but added that there is still a way to go.
She said: “It is making people aware that young people are just as capable and just as important in these institutions and we do belong there.
“I think we need more young people involved.
“We saw a lot of young people standing in the elections last year, which was fantastic, but I was the only one who got through [in Cardiff].
“It can be a bit lonely, but it just makes me all the more determined to get my generation in there.”
The winners of the Cllr Awards in England and Wales will be announced on November 16, 2023.
