Agenda item

Question a) from Councillor Gantly to Councillor Champion, Executive Member for Environment & Transport

Highbury East councillors are grateful to Cllr Champion for attending the recent Highbury East Ward Partnership, where Cllr Champion witnessed first hand the enormous enthusiasm for making Highbury East a low traffic neighbourhood. In view of this enthusiasm, and given the council has made budget provision for low traffic schemes, could Cllr Champion please share her plans for a low traffic neighbourhood in Highbury East?

Response

I would like to thank Councillor Gantly for her question and I was extremely pleased to attend the Ward Partnership meeting. 

I agree that there was real enthusiasm and engagement on how we can improve the area.  We are proposing to invest £1M to develop ‘Liveable Neighbourhoods’ to improve the local environment for everyone.  The Mildmay / Highbury East area has been selected as the first Liveable Neighbourhood in Islington, but this is part of a much wider borough vision to introduce Liveable Neighbourhoods in every residential area of the borough in the coming years.  We believe Liveable Neighbourhoods cleaning our boroughs air and creating a nicer more pleasant environment for everyone. The proposals for Liveable Neighbourhoods will be closely designed with local communities to stop through traffic, to make it easier to walk and cycle, and will include measures such as road closures and cycle routes, better crossings and improved public spaces to remove barriers to cycling. Thank you again for your question and I look forward to working with you and other ward councillors to shape the Liveable Neighbourhood.

Question b) from Councillor Poyser to Councillor Watts, Leader of the Council

For how long will the European Flag fly from Islington Town Hall?

Response:

Thank you for your question Councillor Poyser and thank you also for attending the We Are Islington event is such a memorable fashion.  20,000 of our neighbours and friends re EU citizens.  Brexit has now happened, but we will continue to respect their rights and the role they play in our borough and as we have not left the institution of the EU yet, I think it is appropriate that we keep the flag flying until the end of this year when it is proposed that we do.  However, in doing some research, I found out that the flag that I had always assumed that the flag that I had always thought was the flag of the EU is actually the flag of the Council of Europe.  It is a different organisation, which Britain joined in 1949.  It wasn’t until 1985 that the EU adopted the flag as well and as Britain remains a member of the Council of Europe, I think that is a very good reason for continuing to fly the flag and as the Council of Europe is the guardian of our human rights. The European Flag is rightly down at the moment whilst we celebrate LGBT history month, but it will be back flying proudly from our Town Hall.

Question c) from Councillor Turan to Councillor Diarmaid Ward, Executive Member for Housing and Development:

Trees play a vital role in tackling the climate emergency and improving the air we breathe, as well as contributing to better mental health. We have just under 40,000 publically managed trees in Islington and the borough currently has a canopy cover of 25%, which is better than the London average of 21% and the UK urban average of 17%. I am incredibly proud of the canopy cover we currently have here and I’m glad we will be increasing this from 25% canopy cover in 2019 to 30% canopy cover by 2050 in alignment with the target of London to achieve 30% canopy cover, as part of the Council’s commitment to clean up the air we breathe.

However, Islington also has a housing crisis and the only way to solve this crisis is to build more council homes. The Dixon Clark Court development in St Mary’s will deliver 27 new council homes for local people. This scheme is a big step towards achieving our ambitious target of delivering 550 new council homes by 2022, as part of Islington’s largest council house building programme in 30 years. Can Cllr Ward commit to ensuring that any lost trees at the Dixon Clark Court Site will be replaced nearby and see lead to a net gain of tree canopy cover across the borough.

Response:

Thank you very much for your questions Cllr Turan, this is a really important issue.  Islington Council’s top priority is delivering safe and affordable homes, including Council homes. The Dixon Clark Court development will deliver 27 new council homes for people and that is a big step towards achieving our target of 550 council homes by 2022.  It is part of Islington’s largest council home building programme in a generation and we should be proud of this.  The scheme does include a small number of private homes but these will pay for not only the council homes but landscape improvements across the whole area. I really wish I could say that the council will deliver 100% council homes on that site, I really do, but unfortunately with the ongoing cuts in government funding, the council to deliver some private homes in order to cross subsidise desperately needed council homes.

Trees play a vital role in talking the climate emergency and helping us achieve our ambitious target of net zero carbon by 2030.  The Council has 40,000 trees and the borough currently has a canopy cover of 25%, better than the London average of 21% and certainly better than the UK average of 17%.  The redevelopment at Dixon

Clarke Court includes the removal of 18 trees, a small palm and four groups of trees/shrubs across the estate. These currently provide around 770 metres of canopy cover.

But the approved scheme already includes 12 replacement trees on the estate which will provide around 470 metres of canopy cover over time, as part of the landscaping strategy developed with the residents at Dixon Clarke Court. The council is now working to identify suitable locations in the local area, to not only replace the remaining 300 metres of canopy cover, but to provide an increase in the current number of trees. Further increases in tree canopy cover will also be sought as part of development schemes across the borough.  The proposals at Dixon Clarke Court

will therefore deliver 27 desperately and urgently needed new council homes, and also an increase in tree canopy cover in the local area and I am very keen to work with the St Mary’s councillors on this and thank you very much for your question.

Question d) from Cllr Gill to Cllr Rowena Champion, Executive Member for Environment and Transport:

Last year, the Council declared a Climate Emergency and committed to becoming a net zero carbon borough by 2030. Last week, I was delighted to see the Council publish its report on progress towards that goal so far, as well as the Council’s capital investment proposals which will go some way to tackling the emergency we face. Toxic air pollution is a major worry for many of our residents and the work the Council is doing to improve air quality is welcome. The figures published recently that show air quality around our schools improving were encouraging and show the benefits of the School Streets scheme. I noted that one of the schools with higher levels of toxic air pollution was Yerbury Primary School in my St George’s ward.

I was concerned recently to see the proposal put forward by Ocado for a delivery hub adjacent to the playground of Yerbury.  All evidence shows that toxic air pollution is particularly harmful to the physical and mental development of children. Ocado’s plans would mean hundreds of polluting vehicles driving along the boundary of the school every day, as well as the installation of a diesel tank and pumps to refuel the vehicles, increasing Islington’s carbon emissions and harming air quality. In light of this, would you agree that the proposal put forward by Ocado, is irresponsible and flies in the face of everything the Council is trying to do to clean up our Borough's air quality.

Response:

Thank you for your question. I think you mentioned earlier that there is an error in the papers which puts Yerbury in St George’s Ward rather than Junction and I just wanted to mention that. Thank you to you and the other ward councillors and particularly to Councillor Chapman for presenting the petition and representing the local community who oppose these proposals.  I agree that Ocado’s proposal to use diesel vans and diesel pumps in close proximity to Yerbury School and green spaces such as Whittington Park is extremely irresponsible.  It flies in the face of everything we are trying to do to provide cleaner air for Islington residents, especially around our schools.

Tackling air pollution is a top priority for the council.  Poor air quality kills over 9000 Londoners every year and effects everyone in some way and is particularly harmful for children and young people, as we have heard tonight.  Our extremely popular School Streets scheme has helped clean up the air around many of our schools including Yerbury, but it is still not good enough.  The council recently became the first local authority in the country to publish air quality data for all of the schools in the borough.  The data showed that despite having a School Street, Yerbury’s air quality is still one of the worst in Islington.  The Ocado depot will make this worse. 

As you know, I have been working with the Leader of the Council, the ward councillors, the school community and Jeremy Corbyn MP to lobby Ocado to reconsider its plans.  In response to the lobbying, Ocado has given a public commitment to pursue improvements to the power supply to the site, but it’s response is nowhere near enough and I assure you I will continue to work with the Leader of the Council and the ward councillors to lobby Ocado to obtain assurances that the children of Yerbury are able to go to school in a safe and healthy environment.