• COUNCILLORS: The Dixon Clark Court consultation was, as you know, published during the heady days of the Highbury Corner redevelopment where there was huge publicity, overshadowing all other proposed work in the area.

Councillors may not be aware that the EIA, environmental impact assessment, a document analysing environmental consequences of the whole Highbury Corner restructuring, including its immediate surrounds, made no reference at all to the removal of the DCC trees.

What is the point of an EIA?

This key point should have been commented on with a strong recommendation to leave the trees standing for their contribution to the whole area – an area which has now lost nearly 20 trees as part of the roundabout’s redevelopment and is a much diminished green space.

The two petitions regarding trees have gathered massive support; the one regarding a TPO, tree preservation order, for all 40,000 Islington trees and not just 1 per cent, has more than 600 signatures and the Save the Dixon Clark Court trees petition nearly 3,500; and both are rising.

Trees matter to people. It’s time to reconsult on this environmentally damaging scheme.

Many things have changed since the first, rather over-shadowed, consultation; not least the council – that’s you – has rightly declared a climate emergency and we have all realised the value of nature as an essential way of coping with Covid.

It’s not “housing or tree” it’s “housing and trees”. Be brave, be environmentally ethical leaders, and reconsider. It’s your legacy which is at stake.

EILIDH MURRAY
Canonbury