• HOLLOWAY Prison closed in 2016 and it will be years before any new development begins on the site. Just outside the prison walls is a building that was used as a visitors’ centre.

This building is modern, accessible and child-friendly – and was built using charitable funds. It would be a complete waste to leave this public building, sitting on public land, locked up and unused for years.

Rather than being left empty until a decision is made about the future of the prison site, the visitors’ centre could be opened immediately for use by the people of Islington.

There are many ways the building could be used:

• a low cost resource to support the work of the many community groups in the borough;

• to provide help to those in the greatest need within our community; and

• for community events.

We are calling on the Ministry of Justice to loan the visitors’ centre to a partnership of community groups so that it can be run by them in the community interest. We will be assembling outside the entrance of the former Holloway Prison in Parkhurst Road on Saturday, February 18, from noon to 1.30pm and are asking readers to join us in a show of support for the centre to be opened.

REBECCA ROBERTS, Justice Matters: A community plan for Holloway; MICK GILGUNN, Islington Trades Union Council; CHRIS HIGNETT, Reclaim Justice Network; MORAG GILLIE, Islington Axe the Housing Act; RODERIK GONGGRIJP, Islington Green Party; WENDY DAVIS, Rooms of Our Own; GLYN ROBINS, Axe the Housing Act (National)