• AFTER years of campaigning and two years of silence from the Labour-run Town Hall and City Hall, proposals for the redevelopment of Highbury Corner are welcome news for pedestrians and cyclists. Bus users, however, have been left out in the cold.

The removal of the 277 bus terminus, ignoring a bus users’ and residents’ petition to keep this bus link with Highbury and Islington Station, means an effective halving of services down St Paul’s Road corridor.

It also means the removal of any direct link between Islington and Canary Wharf. Surely “improvement” works should be there to improve connectivity and encourage people out of their cars. Cutting this vital bus link does the complete opposite.

Regular bus users will know that the 277 often leaves its stand close to full, with standing room only. It is clear that additional buses on the number 30 route (two each way, each day) are far from the additional capacity required.

These changes will cause a huge inconvenience to public transport users and are another example of cuts to bus services that Labour is making throughout London.

A better option would have been extending the 277 bus to terminate in Angel, where its night bus equivalent (N277) is due to start and finish.

VICTOR KAUFMAN
Islington Liberal Democrats