• LAST Wednesday, a Highbury East ward partnership discussed Islington Council and Transport for London’s recently-announced plans for the future of Highbury Corner.

The meeting was called at short notice, following the much-delayed publication of the plan, to squeeze in before the pre-election, ‘purdah’ bar puts a block on council discussions.

Despite the short notice, though, a packed committee room at the town hall was able to see how the outgoing Labour administration’s unwillingness to talk to the community has resulted in it missing opportunities and a failure to grasp the wider picture and the smaller details.

As it happens, Islington Green Party is broadly in favour of the aims of the proposed scheme, which has the potential to make Highbury Corner a safer and more pleasant place for people walking, cycling or using public transport.

But points raised at the meeting made it clear that the council, for example, hasn’t fully considered wider traffic and pollution impacts on Canonbury or Highbury Fields; hasn’t worked through the details of how cycle and bus lanes will interact safely on Holloway Road or Balls Pond Road; and has missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a wider pavement on the east side of Holloway Road.

Instead, we’re offered a wider than necessary expanse of paving on the west side, whose actual use has still to be determined.

Labour tried to muzzle this discussion until after the election and it was only Green Party councillor Caroline Russell’s intervention which forced it to happen sooner. As a result, voters are now presented with a clear example of the sorts of risks from voting in another Labour “super-majority” on May 3. They just don’t listen.

ERNESTAS JEGOROVAS
Islington Green Party