Copy of letter to Cllr Rowena Champion, executive member for environment and transport

• DEAR Cllr Champion, Re: Proposal for a new “people-friendly streets” neighbourhood around St Mary’s Church.

I am concerned at the council’s recent announcement that a new low traffic neighbourhood, LTN, is to be created around St Mary’s Church before the end of the year.

Yet again residents in the affected area have been given no details of the scheme beforehand, let alone actually been asked their views about it.

It’s a missed opportunity for engagement and consultation with residents.

Here’s a quote from the London Cycling Campaign “how to talk to people about the future of their streets”, emphasising the need to engage genuinely with residents in order to build support for new schemes: “We need to adopt local decision-making processes that draw in and empower a truly diverse cross section of the community, help people understand schemes, and build their confidence in officers and politicians.

“We need to help our communities genuinely participate in, and feel ownership over, decisions that currently seem to be imposed on them by those who claim to know better.”

Islington Liberal Democrats call for you to delay the St Mary’s Church scheme until residents have had a proper chance to understand what the Town Hall intends.

We want as many people as possible to have the benefit of safer, quieter, greener, streets. But this must be done in the right way.

Please assure the people of St Mary’s you will talk to them, explain to them, and listen, before you install cameras and road closures.

We want to see schemes implemented with the informed support of the public. They won’t work otherwise.

Yours sincerely.

KATE POTHALINGAM
Islington Liberal Democrats