• AT the full council meeting last Thursday, I put forward a motion stating: “Providing safe streets for people walking and cycling is a matter of social justice.” This is, of course, a quote from our local MP, Jeremy Corbyn, who recently met with walking and cycling campaigners to discuss their concerns that Islington is making little progress on cycling safety.

This motion was passed, but only after being heavily amended and extended by the Labour majority, who added a list of things that have happened in the borough, such as the recent Transport for London project at Archway and the introduction of the 20mph limit that former Green councillor Katie Dawson got into both the Lib Dem and Labour budgets when there was a hung council in February 2010.

They also added a complaint that Islington has lost out on a source of TfL funding as Boris Johnson changed the rules and a welcome commitment to revise the borough’s transport strategy.

Crucially, they removed the text in the original motion: “This means linking public health outcomes to transport spending and aiming for zero people killed on our roads.”

Linking public health outcomes with transport spending is fundamental to the Mayor of London’s Healthy Streets approach and helps address rapidly rising, population-wide obesity and plummeting physical activity levels.

Since the meeting, cycle campaigners have been pointing out that Islington has recently repainted cycle symbols in Central Street too close to parked cars, encouraging people to ride in the “door-zone” where they risk being “doored” by people getting out of their cars and pushed into the path of oncoming traffic as tragically happened to Sam Harding in Holloway Road in August 2011.

If Islington Labour wants to show it believes that “Providing safe streets for people walking and cycling is a matter of social justice”, it should use current spending to cut, not increase, road danger to enable more people to walk and cycle in safety. We owe it to all residents and especially the bereaved families who mourn their loved ones so sadly killed on Islington streets.

CLLR CAROLINE RUSSELL
Green Party, Highbury East ward