• ISLINGTON’S Labour-run council won a large majority at the 2018 elections promising to provide decent, secure and genuinely affordable homes for all.

And to do this we are committed to building 550 new council homes for families in desperate need by 2022.

The council has over 14,000 families on its housing needs list and in our casework we regularly see families in desperately overcrowded or unsuitable homes – at present including from current residents of the Wedmore estate.

The development of new social housing on the Wedmore estate will provide a brand new, safe, and affordable home for many of those families.

The council is also determined to tackle the environment and climate emergency, and to help us reach our ambitious target of a net-zero carbon Islington by 2030, we are taking a number of steps to improve biodiversity across the borough.

To deliver the much-needed council homes, a construction site with portable cabins has to be temporarily erected in a place which best protects the wonderful Whittington Park for local people to enjoy.

This location of the site is next to the new homes, meaning that the distance that the contractors need to walk between the cabin and the building site is as short as possible.

This will minimise the impact on the park and mean that more of this popular multi-use park is available for people to use, while socially distancing – in particular those that do not have access to their own private outdoor space.

The meadow in question is dug up and reseeded on a yearly basis. Once building work at Wedmore estate has been completed, the cabin will be removed, and the original meadow will be reseeded, with additional improvements made to the shrub bed along the park boundary.

To ensure local people can continue to enjoy the meadow in the meantime, the council will pay for an alternative meadow to be seeded, and is working with local people who use the park to identify the best location for this.

These developments will provide a net improvement to the biodiversity of the park, and surrounding areas, including the estate which will benefit from an increased number of trees.

By delivering new, genuinely affordable, council homes for local people and improving biodiversity in our borough, we are making it a fairer place for all.

CLLR JANET BURGESS
CLLR KAYA COMER-SCHWARTZ
CLLR SHEILA CHAPMAN
Labour, Junction ward