Agenda item

(a) YCllr Eva to Cllr Champion, Executive Member for Environment, Air Quality and Transport:

We recently attended a Youth Debate organised by Islington Faith Forum and Islington Council. What measures has the Council taken in 2023 to minimize the impact of climate change and what plans are in place for next year?

Response:

Thank you for your question, Eva. The council is committed to tackling climate change and is working hard to deliver against the commitments made in our Vision 2030: Building a Net Zero Islington strategy. The latest data on the council’s own direct carbon emissions (correct at end of financial year 2022/23) shows an overall 6% reductionin the council’s operational emissions (buildings and transport) between 21/22 and 22/23, and a 43% reduction within the last five years.

Our own carbon emissions reduction has been supported by the council switching the electricity supply of most of its corporate buildings to a renewable tariff in 2021, resulting in the electricity related emissions of those buildings reducing to zero.  A key milestone this year was the installation of solar panels on 5 council sites. The new panels will save approximately 18 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. We have also progressed work to decarbonise housing estates and our first school.  In addition, over the past year we have improved the energy management of our corporate buildings, as well as completing Heat Decarbonisation Plans for more of our buildings to support external funding bids to fund the decarbonisation measures. 

Our people-friendly streets programme is the cornerstone of our transport strategy and we have delivered seven Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and are continuing the programme by developing proposals for liveable neighbourhoods and cycleways, alongside electric vehicle charging infrastructure and our active travel programme.

We are also supporting the green economy through the green skills hub in partnership with Peabody, and our Energising Small Business Grants scheme.

We have been delivering our Greener Together programme in partnership with the community, and our Waste and Recycling Team has delivered repair and reuse workshops and are focused on increasing recycling on our estates.

Our new local plan includes strengthened policies on low carbon development and retrofit, and we have supported this with free planning advice for householders interested in retrofit and engagement workshops on how to develop net zero guidance for householders and developers.

In terms of finance, we have continued to decarbonise the council’s pensions and investments.

We work with London Councils, the GLA and other boroughs to share best practice and develop collaboration. The 6 week Go Zero campaign this spring was our first campaign delivered in partnership with our Anchor Institutions Network. 

We will continue to deliver and further develop all of these initiatives next year, as well as:

• Launching climate awareness training for all staff
• Working with Public Health to understand our climate risks and climate adaptation needs.
• Launching a citizens panel to focus on climate change
• Publishing our draft net zero Supplementary Planning document

We report on our progress towards Vision 2030 to the Environment and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee and the latest report, detailing activity from April to September 2023 is available to download from the council’s website.

(b) YCllr Areeb to Cllr Khondoker, Executive Member for Equalities, Culture and Inclusion:

How is the council supporting and reassuring young people from all faiths, to feel they are welcome to practice their faith freely in Islington?

Response:

Thank you for your question, Areeb. Doing all that we can to keep children and young people safe is one of the council’s top priorities embedded in all council work. Supporting young people who are part of a particular faith group is subsequently important, as we recognise that this is key to helping them thrive and realise their full potential.

Young people are able to attend and access the youth groups attached to various places of worship in Islington. This is where they will be able to meet other young people who share the same faith as them. They are also able to go directly to places of worship where they can connect with other members of their faith community.  We encourage young people to do this through our youth hubs, VCS organisations and other youth focussed services.

Proximity is important to young people and they tend to go to places of worship that are near to them to practice their faith safely.  If they travel further afield, this can introduce other risk factors. We want them to be able to practice safely and will continue to promote these places to our young people.

There was also a Youth Debate forum on 15^th November at Lift Youth hub. This was delivered by Islington’s Faith Forum with support from the council’s Young Islington department. At this forum, young people had a safe space to talk about topical issues from a faith perspective.  A video of this was created of this and is available online.

In addition, we have also continued to work closely with the Police to ensure that perpetrators of hate crime are reprimanded. Young people and their faith communities should feel free to practice without fear of repercussions, harm or violence. We will continue to encourage our young people to report any threats or violence should they experience this and are open to debates and discussions with them on this topic. Thank you again for your question. 

(c) YCllr Vincent to Cllr Turan, Executive Member for Health and Social Care: 

The Olympic Games will be held in Paris in 2024, what sporting, and leisure opportunities can Islington’s young people look forward to participating in, next year?

Response:
Thank you for your question, Vincent. Both now and next year, young people in Islington can take part in twenty-one sports that will take place at the Paris Olympics: archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, canoeing and kayaking, cycling, fencing, football, gymnastics and trampolining, handball, judo, rugby, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, and volleyball. The council’s website has further information, including a map that shows where these sports are on offer and information specifically for young people.

The council plans to hold a free sports event during the Olympics, which will be an opportunity for young people to try many of these sports and other opportunities to be active in Islington.

We are proud to have many leisure centres and sporting facilities in our borough which young people have access to. Thank you again, Vincent.

(d) YCllr Ameera to Cllr Woolf, Executive Member for Community Safety:

We have enjoyed participating in events held during the “Standing together fortnight”. This included promoting the youth night and sharing our views in recoded podcasts. What plans are in place to promote Safe Havens so more young people are aware of their locations and purpose?

Response:

Thank you for your question, Ameera. And thank you for all your work as youth Mayor.

We have increased our Safe Haven scheme from the original 75 sites to currently over 350 in the past 18 months, meeting our manifesto pledge ahead of schedule. We are now focusing on ensuring that people are aware of the sites and are accessing them successfully so that we can develop a culture of care in our community.

About 30% of our Safe Havens say they have helped somebody in the past year and we have examples where they have been used to flee significant violence including a stabbing in Canonbury, Robberies in St Peter’s & St James’ ward and predatory sexual behaviour in the Arsenal ward.

We work closely with Young Islington and most recently have developed a Safe Haven video specifically for young people to be more aware of the scheme.  This video was designed, written and recorded by the young people themselves as experts in messaging for their peers. The video was screened for the first-time last week at a VCS event to support young people and will form part of an ongoing campaign to raise awareness and will be uploaded online.

We worked with service users at Islington Learning Disability Partnership to create In Case of Emergency cards which are available for ordering from our website. As part of the new council website, we’ll be updating our pages and adding videos to that, as well as updating the interactive map which has all of the Safe Haven sites listed. Thanks again for your question, Ameera.

Supplementary Question:

Do you have any other schemes to help young people in Islington?

Response:

There are various initiatives undertaken by the Council to support and assist young people. The Council aims to work alongside communities and young individuals. In terms of prevention, the Council provides a range of resources, including youth centres and diversionary activities, aimed at offering enjoyable experiences and skill development opportunities for young people. There is a team specifically dedicated to working with vulnerable youth to prevent exploitation.

The presence of targeted youth support that offers one-on-one assistance and engages with schools. Additionally, a hate crime prevention champion scheme has been recently developed, with the intention of involving young people in becoming champions for hate crime prevention. The overarching goal is to support those vulnerable to difficulties in the borough and create an environment where young people feel active, heard, and safe.